Mortifera Forensis
by Vanessa S. Quest
Summary: ConYuu Why is everything in this kingdom so backwards! And why does playing ball with your kid turn into a string of assassination attempts? Yuuri's luck was always... special. Read to find out more! COMPLETED! Chapters 8 & 9 Uploaded. Again, ConYuu.
1. Part 1 Grey Squirrel

Grey Squirrel, part 1 by Vanessa S. Quest

Greta squealed as her bat swung wildly at the ball Conrad had thrown toward her strike zone. Yuuri caught the ball and reminded his adopted daughter, "Greta, keep your eyes open, don't be afraid of the ball. Conrad's a good pitcher, he won't hit you." He smiled confidently.

Yuuri threw the ball back to Conrad and signaled for a slow-ball. Greta swung wildly, missing the ball once more.

"Watch the ball, you almost had it!" Yuuri smiled. Greta smiled at Yuuri.

"Okay Yuuri!" She said, swinging the bat for practice then taking her stance. Yuuri nodded proudly, tossing the ball back to Conrad, and again signaled for a slow-ball.

Conrad also nodded, then threw the ball. Greta swung, making contact, tipping the ball upward.

Strictly in catcher-mode, Yuuri aimed to catch the foul-ball as it returned to the earth. The ball knocked into a branch before returning to his mitt.

"Sorry, Greta, but you're out." Yuuri scratched his head. As he did, he felt something fall onto his left shoulder. At first Yuuri jumped from shock, but then he relaxed when he noticed what had landed on him. "Oh! It's a grey squirrel."

Conrad, however, tensed when he heard Yuuri say that, Greta even began to back away.

"Oh, Greta, you aren't mad that I caught the ball are you?" Yuuri asked, seeing his daughter's distorted face.

"Your Majesty, stay very still!"

"Oi, I keep telling you its Yuuri, Conrad! What's wrong? It's just a squirrel… I'm sure if I don't try to pet it, it will just get down on its own." He mentioned to himself how he'd never live down being scared by a squirrel if Wolfram were to hear, not like he was, of course!

"Greta, go inside." Conrad mentioned, "Tell Gisela to come out here at once. Go."

"Oi, Conrad…" Yuuri pouted. He didn't see the point to ushering away his daughter like that.

"Yuuri, squirrels are poisonous here."

"Eh? They are?"

"Grey squirrels are particularly venomous… so please, stay very still."

Yuuri's shoulders tensed as if on reflex, trying to shake off the dangerous thing. Doing so only managed to provoke the creature, coaxing it to claw into Yuuri's shoulder to prevent from being shook off.

"Geh! C-Conrad, hurry and get it off!"

"Calm down, don't upset it." Conrad took his soldier's shirt off, holding it so he could bat the beast without being bitten, himself.

The squirrel sniffed Yuuri, oblivious to Conrad, and came face to face with Yuuri. Yuuri's eye twitched as he laughed nervously, he really was now afraid of a harmless looking grey squirrel, he couldn't believe it. It looked so innocent, too. Not even like a Goala, looking fiercely rabid then timid and sweet like a regular koala.

It twitched it's little whiskers at Yuuri, even. How could this really be so poisonous? What kind of place was Shin Madoku.

It began to climb around Yuuri as if his chest were a branch, climbing down to his right arm, Yuuri began to raise his arm, slowly away from his body.

The squirrel did not seem to like that, or perhaps the shadow of a larger object approaching it, as it wound up biting Yuuri fiercely just before Conrad knocked it away.

Conrad was right! It was poisonous, the bite itself felt like fire, and in fact Yuuri's whole hand felt prickly-numb. Conrad grabbed a pitcher of some Shin Madoku version of lemonade, dumping it and cap-sized it around the squirrel, capturing it. He then rushed over to Yuuri.

"Yuuri!" He took a hold of Yuuri's right arm and corded off the blood flow with his shirt made tourniquet. He then gently walked Yuuri under a tree, which seemed to have instantly become an area Yuuri disliked immensely as he pressed forcefully back into Conrad's guiding arm.

"N…no."

The seasoned soldier however managed to press onward, winning over the young maoh going into shock. "Yuuri, you have to get in the shade at once." Talking seemed to make Yuuri's body calm, slightly, as he was able to sit Yuuri down at the base of the tree.

Conrad sat beside him, holding Yuuri's forearm upward, making a right angle at his elbow with his arm.

Yuuri could feel the pain and imagined it seeping through him, moving up his hand and into the area of his wrist slowly. In truth, though, the numb prickliness had been what had spread up to his elbow at that point.

"M…my whole arm feels funny…" Yuuri mentioned, "Tingly like a static shock all over."

"Up to where, Yuuri?" Conrad asked, he could tell Yuuri had blanched and was in a state of shock from the venom.

"It's right above my elbow, by four centimeters." Conrad nodded that was the level of the tourniquet-- he had stopped the poison from hitting his circulation in time… for now. "Conrad, I feel really dizzy."

Yuuri's sight blurred in and out of focus and Conrad couldn't help but notice his blank stare and pallor skin. "Just hold on a little more, the poison has five stages it moves through. At the bite-wound it burns, but it will only burn where sunlight hits it directly, that should go away soon. Then it first feels like pin-pricks wherever the poison reached, that will then feel like you're being jabbed all over where it had prickled, then it feels icy-cold, then it feels like all the pain is fading away."

"And then?" Yuuri asked, hopeful.

"…Then the tissue dies completely, unless you get the anti-venom. You feel dizzy because you're going into shock, your majesty. You might even pass out."

"W-why am I in shock?" Yuuri shivered, his breathing was becoming much more rapid and shallow, Conrad noted internally.

"The venom has a way with reacting with your nerves, though it travels in the blood. Your nerves feel as if you're losing blood, so your body is trying to compensate, making your body conserve what it can. It makes everything unessential shut down and gives your brain, lungs and heart the extra blood-flow. That's why the poison can kill in under 17 minutes if it isn't caught."

"17 minutes?! You mean my arm will die and fall off in 17 minutes?!"

His heart was racing, painfully fast in his chest, his stomach felt clenched tightly, adding a feeling of nausea to the dizziness. Yuuri shivered and leaned his forehead into Conrad's shoulder, panting in air.

"Not at all, the tourniquet was properly placed, with the size of that grey squirrel your arm can survive for probably another 30 minutes without any long-term effects. More than that might risk nerve and circulatory damage, though."

"I… I think I might just throw up…" Yuuri mumbled. In the most dignified way Yuuri could, he leaned across Conrad, weakly, a lost the minimal contents he had had left in his stomach. Immediately afterwards; his body went limp, strewn over Conrad's thighs. Conrad took hold of Yuuri's right arm keeping it in the upright position. His other hand smoothed down Yuuri's hair in a calming fashion though Conrad felt anything but calm at the moment.

After the longest 7 minutes Conrad could readily recall, Gisela came rushing over with an anti-venom kit.

"You didn't try to remove the poison did you…?" Gisela asked. Conrad gave her a stern look.

"I know not to do something like that, the tourniquet held the venom off, up to his shoulder." Gisela nodded. He added quickly, "He just collapsed, but before then, he was still in the first stage."

Gisela sprung into action, "Thank you, what kind of squirrel?"

"Grey, larger variety, I've caught it underneath that jar." Conrad pointed.

"Alright, I'll take a look and be right back." She handed him a vial of something labeled as demonic smelling salts of consciousness. "Please try to revive him while I look."

In a standard fashion, Conrad placed a vial of no doubt one of Anissina's inventions underneath Yuuri's nose, causing the boy's eyes to flash open. Yuuri let rip a pained scream as he clawed at his own arm.

"Yuuri! What's wrong?" Conrad asked, he assumed this meant Yuuri was experiencing the next stage, perhaps the most painful of them all.

Spotting Yuuri's attempts at clawing up his own skin, Conrad took a hold of Yuuri's freed left hand, surprised the young maoh had stripped off the mitt of so easily. "You can't do that, Your Majesty, it will spread the poison to your other hand, and the rest of your body."

Yuuri's hand still instinctively tried to pull toward his pained arm. "But it feels like there are spiders all underneath my skin…" Yuuri's eyes hadn't quite regained their luster of full awareness, but Conrad had already surmised that when Yuuri didn't correct him for not being more familiar.

"Yuuri," Conrad pulled Yuuri's face towards him, locking eyes, "you can not be permitted to scratch your arm up. Gisela will be here with the right anti-venom and a pain-killer. Please just hold on a few more moments." Conrad turned to see Gisela, "Gisela!"

She turned to face him, "I can't believe such a dangerous animal got into the courtyard." She mentioned, walking over to her kit she reached for three vials. She took the first vial and injecting needle, shooting it into Yuuri's carotid. "Your majesty, I've just given you a powerful pain killer, you may feel faint, tell me when you start to feel your muscles relaxing."

Yuuri's tensed left arm dropped to a more rested position, his right arm still felt painful pressure but at each passing second that pain seemed to dull in his mind. "I… I think it's working, Gisela."

"Okay, please try to raise your right arm over your head then."

Conrad continued to prop up his arm to shoulder level. "Isn't it though?" Yuuri said after a little effort.

"Alright it's working." Gisela mentioned. "Conrad remove the tourniquet."

Untying the shirt he unwrapped it, then slid it off to the side, temporarily forgotten.

Gisela injected the contents from the second vial into Yuuri's arm. Yuuri's pallor started to return as the first of the drugs had taken full course through his body. Gisela took out the third container, taking it, she injected it into Yuuri's shoulder.

"W-What's happening Gisela?" Yuuri mentioned, curious to know what was going into his body.

"This is the pain killer, your majesty. Conrad, please bring his majesty to his living quarters, he'll need to recuperate for at least the next two days." She took Yuuri's hand and began to fuse her healing magic with him, the wound on his hand closing up; the over-all soreness seemed to disappear in the vapors.

"I can walk there, myself, Gisela." Yuuri said, a bit put-off by being told to have Conrad carry him.

Conrad smiled gently at Yuuri, it was rare for Yuuri to show any sort of temper-tantrum, but Yuuri pouting was so unbelievably adorable. He chose to keep that mental image for himself.

"Your majesty, she just gave you a muscle relaxer, try to raise your left arm to eye-level." Conrad said, soothingly. Yuuri attempted to comply, really, he did! His body just seemed to ignore his commands.

"…" Yuuri muttered just at the level of inaudibility, "I'm not going to get to live this down…" He grimaced, already imagining Wolfram's taunts of calling him a wimp, only to be complicated further by being called a cheat for letting Conrad carry him to bed. Yuuri blushed, oh not like he'd mind that trade-off at ALL.

Conrad lifted Yuuri in his arms, knowing his success. Gisela took up Conrad's shirt and managed to drape it over Conrad's arm without disturbing Yuuri's body in the process.

"I can't believe a cute little grey squirrel did this to me." Yuuri brooded, miserably. "This place has serious problems… Oh! You're not going to hurt it, are you? But, I wonder why you'd never mentioned it before, if it was in the courtyard and all… and so poisonous…"

"Yuuri, squirrels are not indigenous to this area, in fact they almost exclusively live near the Cimarons. They are forbidden to be imported."

"Then how… did it sneak on a ship maybe? But why come to visit…" Yuuri seemed to be heading into random thoughts that painkillers were known to bring.

A brief glimpse of anger washed over Conrad's face. "I will be sure to address such issues about the wildlife with Gwendel and Gunter. Please leave this matter to me."

"The matter of a squirrel getting loose? You seem overqualified for that though…"

Conrad approach Yuuri's bedchambers and opened the door while holding Yuuri bridal-style. He entered the room and laid Yuuri onto the bed before going back to the door to close it.

"Your majesty…"

"YUU-RI. It's Yuuri." He pouted. Yuuri's eyes drooped as he rested himself on his bed.

"Yuuri, it was most likely…" Conrad stopped himself, he didn't want to worry Yuuri with assassination attempts; the young man was already fatigued as it was and needed so badly to rest.

He knew why Yuuri hadn't pressed him to finish his sentence, luckily, for he had fallen asleep. Conrad set out Yuuri's pajamas and began to take off Yuuri's catcher gear.

Wolfram stormed into the room. "YUURI!" Yuuri stirred slightly underneath Conrad's careful arms as he pulled off the chest padding.

Conrad turned to give Wolfram a terrifying look. "Wolfram!" His voice barked out as an order. "His majesty needs his rest. What is it that you wish to address?"

Wolfram looked at Conrad, perhaps the blond was stunned at the sudden outburst from his so well trained older brother that he didn't even seem to register that Conrad was in the process of undressing his unenthused fiancé. "Explain this then!"

Conrad looked at Wolfram, "He was bitten by a grey squirrel, you should know just as much as I do about how painful that is supposed to be, regrettably he moved into second stage just before treatment. Gisela gave him a sedative for him to recover more quickly."

"But how did a squirrel get to--"

"That is to be investigated immediately, however, I must first tend to his majesty."

Wolfram gave Conrad a look, probably still fazed from being scolded with such a strong tone, Wolfram proposed, "I'll do that. I'll report to brother to start a formal inquiry."

Conrad was a bit taken aback, did Wolfram lose sight of how he was stripping his fiancé to dress him for bed? Or even lose sight of his chance to bodyguard Yuuri in this prone state? Conrad had figured he would have to somehow negotiate his own stay with Yuuri instead of Wolfram folding before even knowing cards why the cards were on the table.

"Alright, also request for him to send two of his finest guards to watch his majesty's chamber doors."

Wolfram nodded. Conrad had to add in the last bit, at least just to try, "And sleep in your bedroom tonight."

"What are you saying Conrad!"

Conrad let out a bit of air, that had been running too smoothly for him, hadn't it? But he had to try…

"Of course I will, Yuuri's not well, what kind of person would I be if I jeopardized his comfort in that state? How would he be able to get restful sleep with my body in such close proximity?"

Conrad only wished Wolfram knew why that happened to Yuuri.

"Having such a beautiful fiancé like myself, and he's so shy and a gentleman never making passes on me… he should just realize I'm not that old fashioned at all!"

He cleared his throat, no longer wanting to hear things along these lines. "Then make the report."

"Fine. I'm going, but you had better plan on guarding him tonight, I'll stay with Greta to make sure she feels safe."

Conrad smiled softly, "Of course." He knew Wolfram had a warm heart, that was what this was really about, protecting his daughter's feelings… it was actually quite sweet.

Once Wolfram had exited and closed the door Conrad moved on to taking off Yuuri's shoes and pants.

Conrad decided to be as gentlemanly as possible and not take advantage of the situation at hand, no, he was absolutely not looking over Yuuri's body devouring it in his mind, nor was he memorizing every curved line of flesh, no, and he was absolutely not taking his time with the buttons on his pajama top to just stare at Yuuri's chest. Nope, not him, not at all. He was merely taking his time there to make sure he didn't disturb Yuuri's breathing, that's right. He brushed back Yuuri's wet bangs, the black-haired boy was drenched with sweat.

He walked over to Yuuri's private water closet and filled a basin of water accompanied with a small wash-towel, bringing it back to Yuuri's side.

Wiping around Yuuri's mouth, Conrad thought to himself that Yuuri would be famished when he awoke, and probably very thirsty as well. Deciding not to trust Yuuri's timing, he sent one of the guards to have a kitchen maid make up sandwiches and a drink for Yuuri's consumption, to be brought up in another two hours.

With that all taken care of, Conrad sat in a chair to Yuuri's side and continued to observe the room and his majesty for any signs of movement.

--To Be Continued.-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	2. Part 2 Elemental Mistakes

Elemental Mistakes, part 2 by Vanessa S. Quest

Yuuri continued to sleep restfully until a little past midday, awakening in the early afternoon, as Conrad had predicted, quite after lunch and significantly before dinner. After batting his eyes frivolously, he seemed to be making progress in actually coming to.

Conrad smiled towards Yuuri as his set of onyx eyes opened. "…Conrad?" Yuuri brought his left hand toward his face to wipe away the sand collecting in the crests of his eyes. His stomach gurgled, reminding him how empty it was.

"Yuuri, how are you feeling? Your arm?"

The black-haired youth groaned a bit as he moved his right hand, clenching his fist then relaxing it. "Ah… it's still a bit sore, but at least that horrible pain is gone." Yuuri shuttered remembering that pain, he noticed his how his right hand was shaking and quite weak.

After managing to sit up, Yuuri looked back down at his lap, still beneath the blankets. Conrad set a tray beside Yuuri, lifting the lids he exposed sandwiches and other finger-foods.

"I thought you might be hungry when you woke up, so I had the kitchen staff prepare a meal for you."

Yuuri smiled through squinting eyes. "Thank you Conrad." Instinctually, Yuuri's left hand picked up the task of feeding him, his right hand still hesitating to his side.

"Not at all." Conrad stepped away from the bed, returning with a drink. When Yuuri finished his sandwich Conrad handed the glass off to his left hand.

"Conrad… how did you know about squirrel poison so much? Do you know when the pain's supposed to go away?"

"Well, regrettably, the longer the venom is in the body the longer the recovery time. However, you should be alright in another day or so, and Gisela will bring something by for the pain."

Yuuri nodded, normally he wasn't the sort to use medicines, especially cough syrups, but in this case he'd make the exception.

"As for how I know, as a soldier we're trained in local fauna and inhospitable conditions of foreign sovereignties."

"Oh, that's right… you said squirrels don't naturally live in Shin Madoku. How did one get here then?"

"Gwendel is currently investigating that, so please don't think of it, however, it seems to be through hostile actions. That being the case, I would prefer if you would stay in your bedroom until you make a full recovery."

"Wait, you think this was an assassination attempt? What's your proof?"

"Unfortunately, that is unclear at the present moment; however, I still request you stay in your room, your majesty."

Yuuri looked at Conrad with a grumpy look, "It's Yuuri."

"Yes, yes, Yuuri." Conrad smiled a disarmingly charming look back at the younger man.

"…Alright. I'll try."

Conrad smiled, trying to hide his victorious feeling to instead lace it with gratitude. It did make it easier to guard Yuuri if he stayed in sight and one location.

Yuuri attempted to get out of bed, his legs still a bit more rubbery than he would have suspected. Conrad caught Yuuri before he could stumble off of the bed. Helping Yuuri stabilize he kept hold of Yuuri's left hand and elbow. Once Conrad thought he had enough of his footing, he let go of Yuuri.

The slightly blushing maoh approached his wardrobe. "Ah… do you mind getting out for a few moments so I can change?"

"Of course, Yuuri." Conrad replied, though he wasn't all that happy about Yuuri's desire to change out of his bedclothes. "Would you like me to bring anything?"

Yuuri's eyes sparkled and he smiled, "Do you have time to play cards with me?"

"For you, I would make time." Conrad looked back at him, "However, we do not have the same kinds of cards as they do on Earth. We do have something that resembles Uno cards."

Yuuri nodded, "Okay, is it the same rules?"

"Yes, for the most part. Though, instead of four colors and numbers, it has shapes and the five elemental colors. Similarly, instead of penalty cards like draw two it has spell cards, requiring you to add in a certain type of card or draw until a certain number."

"…That… sounds completely different than Uno… but it does sound like some other card games I've played. How many people does it need to be played?"

"As many as five, as few as two, though it has different rules if you play with five."

"You mean each person would play as a penalty element?"

"Yes." Yuuri held his head.

"…This is getting complicated… maybe we could forgo cards. Are there any other, easy games to play?"

"I'll bring some by, really though, the game isn't as hard as it seems."

"Alright, alright I understand, we can try but if I'm no good at it, it won't be fun."

"I'll be back in five minutes then, Yuuri." As Conrad left he instructed the guards to keep a close ear on the room in his absence.

While Conrad walked toward the guard's quarters Gwendel spotted him and approached quickly. "Conrad! Why aren't you guarding Yuuri?"

"He's asked me to fetch something as he changes, there are two guards from my army at his door."

"You should return immediately. We suspect there are still foreign agents on or near the grounds."

Conrad nodded once, entering the guard quarters, he quickly spotted his quarry and what seemed like a suspicious sign, army uniforms pulled from their normal locations and strewn on the bunks. His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Gwendel, we have to hurry! His majesty is in great danger. They must be impersonating members of our guards!"

"What!" Gwendel mentioned indignantly. He clutched his sword hilt and ran toward the king's chamber with a speed like that of when he ran from Anissina. Conrad kept a few paces ahead of his older brother.

Turning the corner, Conrad saw something he absolutely dreaded, the two guards he had placed at the door were both unconscious in a mess of limbs. Conrad forced open the door, hearing Yuuri's screech cry he had only wished it was for barging in on him suddenly while changing, instead, it was caused by one of the imposter guards, in Gwendel's battalion garb, crushing Yuuri's right arm, pulling him toward the window.

"Yuuri!"

The man brandished as dagger to the tip of Yuuri's neck, Yuuri's face distorted with the pain piercing his whole right side.

"C-Conrad! Gwendel!" Yuuri had managed to dress himself in the few moments he'd had before the siege.

The man squeezed on Yuuri's hand which made it go lax. Yuuri winced one eye shut and teeth grit, Conrad noticed the drink in Yuuri's glass trying to collectively raise, as Yuuri began to irradiate, the trained man bashed him in the head, knocking Yuuri out of his concentration. Conrad hastily approached while the blade was away from Yuuri's neck. He managed to get in between Yuuri and the assailant, he pushed Yuuri toward Gwendel.

"Gwendel, get him out of here, now!" Gwendel lifted Yuuri and pulled him toward the door.

Before he exited, however, Gwendel remarked, "They've brought reinforcement, there isn't a clear exit point." He put Yuuri in a corner away from the window and door, drew his sword and stood between Yuuri and the rest of the room.

Conrad's eyes grew dangerously dark, slicing at the man, the man made the most advisable decision by tactfully deciding that jumping had a much more likely chance for his survival.

Yuuri's eyes tried to open fully, but his sore body seemed to try to lull him toward sleep. Fighting that feeling, he pressed his back into the wall and slid to his feet. "…W…What's going on Gwendel, why did your guard attack me? Conrad!"

Yuuri seemed to relax slightly upon seeing the brunette. Perhaps his body relaxed too much as he fell forward into Gwendel's back.

Gwendel turned quickly, facing the unconscious teen.

"Your Majesty…!"

Conrad's darkened aura didn't seem to lighten, even with Yozak entering Yuuri's room giving sign that any uprising had been squelched. "Yozak, report."

"Of course, Captain. Oi, is the boyo alright?"

"Someone managed to slip in past his guards. Gwendel, please summon a healer."

The older man nodded, then, after stepping outside momentarily, he conveyed the order before reentering the tossed room.

"It may be best to secure his majesty in different living quarters for the time being." Gwendel mentioned. He then added, "I'm going to address the guards to search the perimeters."

"Gwendel, wait. Yozak will go with you, I'll transport his majesty to my living quarters for now."

The tall, gloomy man nodded once. "Alright, I'll tell Gisela when she arrives."

Conrad sat Yuuri on the corner of the large bed, "Yuuri, I'm going to apply your disguise then transfer you to a safer area in the castle for the time being."

Yuuri's eyes focused into cat slits, Conrad pulled back, surprised at Yuuri's partial transformation.

As the maoh's hair lengthened Conrad looked worriedly toward the youth. "Your majesty?"

Without speaking the maoh summoned a water shield around him, exiting through the window. "Yuuri! YUURI!" Conrad cried out after him, he began running toward the courtyard where the maoh had approached. Yozak and Gwendel quickly approached the very same courtyard after seeing the watery displays wondering just why the maoh had taken form.

As the maoh stood amidst a water platform, the periphery of the courtyard was lined with dancing water dragons, scouring the scenery in their own rights. Upon spotting its quarry, the water dragons pulled in tautly, one even passing through the maoh to tighten a ring around one very unlikely spot.

Conrad hastily approached the maoh, "Yuuri, are you alright? What's wrong?"

The maoh merely pointed to the fountain where his earlier attacker took stance. The menacing figure rushed the water dragons, managing to slip half-past one, as his body was half submerged, he threw a bag at Yuuri's hand, Conrad sliced it down before it could reach, however, the man seemed to have a contingency plan for this, as well, as he took out a staph with an orange-glowing crystal. He aimed the staph upward, causing a rain of sparks to fall. The maoh began to approach the cornered man, still wordlessly, which concerned Conrad considerably, as the maoh was known for being preachy.

Now seeming to be a bit more frantic, the man drew out more devices, eventually pulling out a cuff with three stones aligning it in an equilateral triangle, each stone a different color including a fiery red one, a metalloid colored one, and one clear stone. He lipped a casting spell causing the air to shift pushing maoh back partially. He then lipped two spells near simultaneously causing molten hot orbs to fling through the air.

The maoh refocused his concentration and put a crushing pressure on the water dragons, giving them the ability to form a grip around him. An orb of water formed specifically around his face, to Conrad's complete surprise.

"Yuuri, what's going on…?"

The maoh reached toward his chest pulling out a dart with a blood-red stone. As he removed it, he began to become more irradiated, he removed the orb of water from around the man's face now that he was no-longer casting spells and threw his body with massive force to the ground, the dragons returned to their elementally water state as the maoh finally spoke, "You're finished."

Conrad blinked; to say he was confused would be an understatement. Yuuri fainted midair as his water platform dissolved.

Conrad quickly got in position to catch Yuuri, snagging him gently before he could hit ground. Yuuri panted, gasping for his air. Red stains began to collect at the corners of his skin and to his right side just below his collarbone.

Yozak took the man into custody. "Captain, the prisoner is secured. Please take care of the boyo."

The brunette nodded, still uncertain as to what was going on. When he looked at the vast set of weapons used he already had assumed he was using powerful magic against the maoh, but he could hardly believe that he'd have something powerful enough to affect the maoh in such a way.

There was no other possibility, that man had definitely been an assassin trying to kill Yuuri, he was even using amplifying stones and following mystical energy channels to suppress even the maoh's strength… normal humans didn't just come upon that knowledge.

Oh well, he'd figure out what was going on later, even if it required peeling up each one of that man's finger and toe nails to do it.

Yuuri began to recover after fifteen minutes, the blood-red marks that had appeared on his clothing were vanishing along with the other effects of the assassin's spells.

"Are you alright Yuuri?" Conrad asked, helping Yuuri to sit up.

"I… think so. What am I doing out here?" He looked around the courtyard trying to recall just why he had become his other form.

"You were valiantly defending yourself from a sorcerer assassin." Conrad gave Yuuri a comforting look as he himself was putting it together.

That plan was far too well organized to be over with that though, he suspected others would soon become involved.

"I remember someone like that… now that I think of it…" Yuuri touched his head, a strong headache forming, "Yeah, when I was changing he hit me with some weird needle or dart… then mumbled something and I became really weak."

"He was using an amplifier spell so his other spells would target you in the maoh form more fiercely, but of course, your majesty handled it quite well." Yuuri smiled.

"Well, I should at least pretend to be a credible maoh." Yuuri rubbed his head. "Oh, now my head and hand hurts, that's not fair."

Conrad walked Yuuri over to a bench to rest for a few more moments.

"Yuuri, would you care to take a rest? Your room became disheveled during the attack, so you could make use of mine…"

The young man's black eyes sparked with the thought of sleeping in Conrad's bed. "Ah, but that would be too imposing of me… and where would you sleep…?" Yuuri thought out loud.

"Oh, that's nothing to worry about, your majesty. I have night-watch tonight so I won't require use of my bed for some time."

Yuuri looked at Conrad, the brunette thought to himself that his excuse sounded fishy. If anything, he'd be sitting in a chair next to Yuuri for the entirety of the evening.

"If you're SURE it's not a burden…"

"Absolutely, you could never be a burden, your majesty."

"Yuu-ri! Ergh, fine. I'll use your room, um, thanks Conrad." Yuuri blushed slightly. Yuuri began flexing his hand, "Ah! It's finally starting to go down!" Yuuri smiled victoriously.

"Hmm?" Conrad asked.

"My hand, it's not hurting as much. I can make a fist without any lasting pressure pains!"

"I'm glad." Conrad helped Yuuri to his feet. "Well, Yuuri, you should prepare for dinner."

"A-Alright."

Conrad thought to himself, more assassins are out there; tonight is going to be a very long night indeed.

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	3. Part 3 War Call

War Call, part 3 by Vanessa S. Quest

After being carefully escorted to the dining hall, through a sickening number of soldiers, Yuuri found his seat at the large, round table.

Conrad was amazed that Gisela had managed to find him, after all, he had regretfully misinformed her twice as to where to find Yuuri. The dinner itself was anything but relaxed, the set of retainers' eyes all cast about the room scanning for any strange movement while Yuuri had a great difficulty in practicing the foreign table manners with only one working hand, he wound up using some spork-like device as his weapon of choice.

Yuuri did seem to be grumbling about that, he really was pitiful looking like that; however, his alternative of using a knife and fork had failed miserably twice already. He sighed in exasperation after attempting and failing for the now third time at using his knife. What was he, a little kid? Needing some grown-up to cut his meal up for him… He chose dignity over that, until his stomach growled loudly. He slumped over, completely put-off by the day.

Conrad gracefully switched his main dish with Yuuri's, as if he were just delivering it out of the kitchen, the others acted as if it had been unnoticed, but realistically exfoliating skin cells flaking to the ground would have been caught by the amount of surveillance. Yuuri happily wolfed down the food.

He could hardly be embarrassed by that! Going maoh always took a lot of energy from him, plus he had done that when he was already over-exerted from that whole squirrel-bite… in fact just thinking about the progression of the day made him slump back in his chair, yawning indiscretely.

Gunter commented to Yuuri, "Your majesty, did you wish to retire for the evening?"

Yuuri merely repositioned himself in a more polite position, "Eh? Oh… yeah, maybe I should… oh, wait, no one else has finished yet. I'll wait."

He attempted to regain his focus, making sure not to lean back in his chair; instead he wound up nodding off drooping toward the table.

Conrad put his hand on Yuuri's left arm, springing him awake. "I'll escort you to your temporary quarters, Yuuri."

Yuuri blinked daftly, then, after a moment the words registered. "Okay." Everyone doubted whether he was even aware of how long he was in that position, to be in such a deep sleep in less than thirty seconds…

Conrad was quite glad that he could operate on fewer reserves than that to keep fully functioning in a tactical maneuver; after all, he might be calling on that energy for just that tonight. Taking Yuuri's hand he escorted him to the door, maybe to just bring some normalcy back Wolfram quipped, "Conrad, I'm relying on you as my brother to protect my wimpy fiancé and make sure he doesn't try to chase any skirts until I can take over again!"

The brunette lowered his head, "Of course, of course… I'll see to that." He internally added you little brat.

Much to everyone's amazement, Shin Madoku had gone without incidence the remainder of that evening, as the night began to wane, Conrad continued to watch Yuuri, keeping his tactical profile of his room ever in mind.

The two areas of vulnerability and escape- a window with a drop onto a lower floor's balcony that lead to the service areas, and the doorway, presuming there wasn't an actual physical barrier, merely enemy agents, the hallway narrowed to only allow for a full axis swing of the sword plus five centimeters to each side until a juncture down the right that led through a set of service entries that anyone inexperienced with would easily get lost within. The two other directions led to the main halls, one passing Gwendel's office as well as Gunter's, the other led toward Yuuri's chamber or the baths depending on which exact route taken later on.

The schematics of Covenant Castle and the surrounding grounds, as well as the village and countryside outside of that, were all in easy access to Conrad's mind's eye.

Yuuri had seemed to recover some energy after a fifteen-minute power nap, leaving him scanning the surprisingly minimalistic room.

Well, how would that really be surprising, he is a soldier after all, and normally they would only keep absolute essentials and very few personal effects, but really—what he saw was kind of shocking saying as how warm and sentimental Conrad was, he had very few mementos.

Let's see, he had his mitt and a ball, a rubber duck… Gwendel didn't make that did he? He had a map, no that looked more tactical than memorabilia for his travels. There was his desk, no photos on it—wait, did Shin Madoku even have photos? Yuuri doubted people painted miniature portraits, either, so that was understandable. The blanket seemed to be a quilt, though.

Maybe his mother Cheri had made it, she was surprisingly interested in sewing. He mused for a moment if that's where Gwendel got it from.

Yuuri's scanning eyes caught onto Conrad's, Conrad had been looking at Yuuri for a moment, aware of the younger man's actions.

"Oh… a… it's just that I've never really been in anyone's private rooms. I thought it might be something a little different, but, ha ha ah, this makes sense too." Yuuri felt nervous, he was scratching his head and felt a cold sweat.

"I actually don't display most of my priceless possessions, with the exception of that," Conrad pointed to the rubber duck, "and the heirloom bed-dressing."

"Ah! Then I shouldn't be sleeping in your bed… I wouldn't want to accidentally do anything to it…"

"Don't worry, your majesty, I trust you with it." Conrad smiled, if anything, that quilt had been absolutely worthless until Yuuri had slept in it, if anything it was just an old quilt his mother had given him after rediscovering it—she claimed how the blue shade from the stitching was just the perfect color for him. He only kept it out of convenience; it was warm enough after all.

Yuuri still seemed on-edge after being trusted with something so precious to Conrad. "Oh… ah, so why is the rubber duck?"

"Ah, it was a gift from someone very close to me, from my stay on Earth in a transitional period of my life." He smiled just hoping he didn't have to tell Yuuri how he had given it to him back on Earth as a baby.

"Oh… I see, haha, I was wondering how Gwendel could have made something plastic. But that… still makes no sense. Why a rubber duck…? Oh! I didn't mean to question it, it strangely suits you… er, no, not strangely. No, it just suits you." Yuuri smiled, hoping by bringing his lips together he might be able to close his mouth.

"Really? I just thought it was rather cute. It even squeaks."

"Ah…ha…haha…" Yuuri felt flustered, there was the sentimental side he knew Conrad had to have somewhere. He just wondered why he seemed to have such quirky taste, first the bad puns and overall damaged sense of humor, now this… his perfect Conrad… well, it made sense that there was a flaw somewhere!

Yuuri stretched back and yawned, he then tensed and relaxed his right hand. Earlier, the pain had been pretty rough, after the anti-venom, even, it felt like it was burning-hot, being pressed tight in a vice. Over the span of a few hours and painkillers, the vice felt like it was loosening, but now it was weird, it felt tingly and almost cold, like an electrical shock—the feeling when it jumps from a faulty switch to the hand, but at the same time, that's not even really a COLD sensation… oi, this was just confusing and his dull pounding headache had only gone away so much.

He figured that this was better than before, at least. Yuuri checked his hand and left shoulder, his hand sported a pretty big bruise, probably from being roughed up by that sorcerer …guy. As for his left shoulder, that was already scabbed over.

"Yuuri, would you like to play that card game now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure that would be great!"

The card game had proceeded rather well, to Yuuri's surprise, he knew Conrad was losing for him, which was a little disheartening, but he figured it was just a teaching game then. Toward the last round, Yuuri's hand was twitching out of his control, even managing to move his fingers as it did, he noticed it when his right hand was supposed to pull up a card but instead caught five of the eight cards left, spilling them face up.

He tried to remove the cards with his left hand, covering them and trying to laugh it off but Conrad merely laid his cards down.

"It's time for you to rest, your majesty, you're pushing yourself too far."

"But… Hey, that's Yuuri!" He sighed after causing himself to lose his own momentum, he leaned back onto the bed a bit disheartened, his left arm propping him up slightly, "You're going to do rounds then, aren't you?"

"Yuuri?"

"You're going to leave…" Yuuri looked remarkably sad and lonely.

"Ah, I see, my rounds are as your personal guard tonight, Yuuri."

"R-Really? Really-really!"

"Yes, really." Conrad patted Yuuri's hair, "Do you need anything to help you relax or sleep, painkillers for your hand, your head…?"

"N… No, I think I'm fine." His hand clenched causing Yuuri to wince in pain. "Well… maybe for my hand…"

"Of course, just stay there." Conrad turned to face the shelves nearest to the door.

"Ah, uh, never mind… I don't want to make you run an unnecessary errand…" Yuuri was thinking to himself how wonderful this day was turning out as far as time with Conrad went, though everything else about it really REALLY sucked. Really. He didn't want to give that up so quickly by falling asleep, which was probably how he managed to stay up until a little before midnight with all that had happened.

Conrad turned to face Yuuri and smiled, "It's no trouble at all, after all, I keep some of these medicinal herbs in my satchel in case I need to use them, here put this under your tongue." He handed Yuuri something that looked like a rolled up sage-leaf.

Yuuri took it with his left hand and did as he was instructed.

"That relaxes muscles, I have a balm if your right arm still hurts, so please let me know at once if you require it."

Yuuri nodded drowsily toward him. His head fell back into the pillow, he was down for the count. Conrad noticed how Yuuri's hand and wrist was still twitching tensely, the blood vessels bulging. He took out the salve and applied a light coating before returning the container of salve to his bag.

The gentler look he had directed at Yuuri and had kept up while Yuuri was awake dissipated into narrowed eyes, steeply perched eyebrows and a straight face. The Lion of Ruttenberg was assuring his domain was not being encroached upon.

Keeping his back to the wall he peered out of the door into the hallway investigating a soft noise.

No, soft noises weren't made in this hallway, not unless someone was purposefully trying to hide their presence, that meant someone was sneaking around. Hand still on the hilt of his now drawn sword he caught three shadowy figures maneuvering toward his door and other doors of the hallway.

He cursed internally, scouts, trying to find the room Yuuri was in, no doubt.

He returned to Yuuri's bedside after silently closing the door, putting the blanket completely over the sleeping dark-haired beauty, he wondered if they might overlook his room. It looked as though they were coming from the main hall, nearest to Yuuri's room. Good, that meant they hadn't heard he was moved, it had surprised them.

The bad news, however, was how far did the other teams get when fanning out to search…? Were they on the same floor still? How the hell had that many people infiltrate the castle perimeter, even?

Apparently, the entire guard would have to be put through a formal investigation to flush out any remaining spies or imposters.

He readied to strike when his doorknob jiggled, when it opened a crack then wavered, he used the reflective surface to know why. One of the masked figures was signaling frantically to pull back.

The man whispered, "That's the head guard and maoh's bodyguard! Don't just open that door, gas it first…"

Conrad's eyes narrowed, he had to wait for one to approach first, then attack. The doorknob jiggled again, Conrad pulled the door open quickly, chopping downward with the butt of his sword knocking the one man out, the second and third tossed a smoke screen forward and seemed to be signaling for backup. Conrad's lion eyes were working in his favor as a veteran of war as he moved through the gas, drawing sparks on the stone with the tip of his sword and finding where to strike, after knocking back a fourth and fifth he re-entered the doorway to his abode and glanced down at Yuuri who had shifted in his sleep, bringing the blanket away from his face and head.

He knew they were signaling each other, somehow, something like this was far too well choreographed. He took Yuuri, wrapped in the blanket sheathed his sword and jumped to the balcony below. After getting within eyesight of the sentry he observed one dead guard and a missing second. They had integrated into the private guard. How long had this plan been in design?

Taking Yuuri over his shoulder he found Gwendel, himself busy with dispatching his troupes.

"Gwendel!"

"Conrad? What are you doing here, and with his majesty…" He massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Only one of the sentry from the West tower is dead, the other is missing. They've integrated with the guard, or a traitor is supplying them."

Gwendel nodded, "It appears so, it seems that was the initial plan, heighten military presence so they could blend in, and with him in that state, no less…"

"We need to pull this outside of the grounds."

"You should worry about his majesty's safety, perhaps the shrine…?"

"It's far too dangerous to move him currently."

Just as Conrad was beginning to wonder where Yozak had went, a very muscular maid approached.

"Ah, just in time, Yozak."

"Ah, Captain Weller, how did you figure me out already…" he pouted before looking more serious. "They seem completely unfamiliar with the service passages, a handful were lost there."

Conrad looked at Yozak with a fiery energy, "Then we should be able to keep a stronghold in the treasure room, get the members from the internal guard and Gunter. Gwendel, if we send a decoy carriage off with Wolfram we may lure out some of the insurgents."

"Alright, Yozak, please assist in spreading a 'message' to the guards that the maoh will be making an exit via carriage and to clear a path."

"Yes sir, I'll be right on that." Yozak winked at Conrad then mentioned, "Your blanket's starting to move."

Conrad nodded once then proceeded to follow the fastest route to the vault-room.

Once securely inside, he checked on Yuuri, who was just starting to come around. "Yuuri?"

"…Huh?" He rubbed his eyes, "Eh? The treasure room now! When did the rooms decide to start changing on me every time I woke up?"

Conrad knelt toward Yuuri, "I'm sorry, I had to transport you for your personal safety. The castle is under siege. We managed to evacuate the civilians, mother is with Greta at the temple, however, we are unable to evacuate at this exact moment."

"Why would I evacuate Covenant Castle? Didn't the first maoh swear to never abandon here? So, I can't disrupt a tradition like that if avoidable."

"Of course, your majesty."

"Not that again…!" Yuuri pointed with his right hand, "Eh? My hand's not sore…"

Conrad turned to face him, "That's due to a medicinal balm, the damage has not been repaired yet." He said it with a stricter voice as if anticipating where Yuuri might be trying to go with that.

"But if I can use my…"

Gunter entered the room then barred the door. "Conrad, your majesty, are you here?"

"Yes, Gunter. Yuuri's woken up as well."

"Ah, your majesty, I'm just so glad you weren't hurt during this…"

Yuuri gave Gunter a look, "Wait, how bad IS it out there?"

"It's a large siege, though it is limited to foot-soldiers."

"They have already released the prisoners in the holding cells, this may turn into a blasting frenzy soon…" Gunter added, honestly, while advising.

"Gunter!" Conrad corrected, looking over at Yuuri suggestively. "I'm sure it will be contained soon, Yuuri."

"…Conrad, you're lying to me." Yuuri's eyes gave away a brief wave of anger. "There are a lot of casualties already. Aren't there?"

Conrad sighed, this was exactly what he had wished to avoid. "Yes, but that can not be helped, especially by you at the present moment. You're currently too weak to attempt to safely maintain your maoh state or any strong magical attacks. By going up there you would be doing exactly what the enemies want."

"I have an obligation to try to help…!"

"You have the OBLIGATION to stay alive for your kingdom and people! Those soldiers are sacrificing their lives to protect that very life, by just throwing away their sacrifice and endangering yourself you'll be more of a hindrance than help." Conrad pushed Yuuri to put his back against the wall.

Yuuri's eyes watered, Gunter was seriously taken aback, though what Conrad had said was true, it was also quite hard for Yuuri to hear, especially from him of all people—even Gunter knew how much Conrad means to Yuuri. "I…" His eyes sharpened drastically, "Then I'll need my retainers to be in their best form to make sure I'm NOT a hindrance. I am not staying here to just let my soldiers or other citizens just get slaughtered for nothing!"

The tension that had momentarily weighted down the air in the room vanished, Conrad's features changed to one of a calm strategist, knowing that the maoh was destined to get his way in this, too.

"Then let Gunter and I think of a strategy before you leave the room."

Conrad knew that 'knocking Yuuri out and hogtying him' would not fly as an affective plan, though he wished it would.

"Yuuri, we were penetrated from the Western corner, therefore if we have a surge our soldiers can cut off any reinforcements they may send, then by attacking in the Eastern and Northern areas we can drive them toward the Courtyard. The Southern line was not focused in their attacks, so Gwendel's forces were able to quickly secure it. If you enter from the Southern wing, it would give you a secure window of entry and escape from the courtyard. Also, by doing this, our men can pinch in and thus have them surrounded."

Gunter nodded, "This is the best tactical plan, with Wolfram's forces pulling in from outside the Western perimeter we can be sure to further prevent any would-be escapees or any additional men."

Yuuri nodded once, "Alright, then." He whispered to himself to build his own confidence, "Bases are loaded, bottom of the ninth, we're up by one point, two outs, two strikes, Shibuya Yuuri, don't drop the ball..."

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	4. Part 4 Courted Dangers

Courted Dangers, part 4 by Vanessa S. Quest

Yuuri closed his eyes to concentrate, hoping he would be able to pull everything off after he had made such a production about it. He knew what Conrad was saying was for what he thought was in Yuuri's best interest, if anything it is in his best interest, but Yuuri also knew he'd never forgive himself for any of the soldiers that died while he did nothing.

That --was not an option.

He always assumed a good leader was someone who would be willing to sacrifice it all for those he served, besides, what good was a king without a kingdom? Yuuri opened his eyes, he felt ready to begin as Conrad's warm brown eyes were burning his image onto them.

"Conrad…?" Yuuri asked, uncertain of the feeling he saw reflecting in them. He realized that those were eyes of war, Conrad truly was developing a strategy. However, this was still a foreign view for Yuuri, as Conrad always seemed to know what he was doing, or at least roll with the tide. He was always trying to show Yuuri warmth, but this look… well, it was different.

"No matter what state things are in, if you feel too fatigued to go on, stop. Yuuri, I mean this."

Yuuri had heard from Gisela once how Julia had died. She used up all of her magical energy, sacrificing herself for the lives of those injured soldiers, soldiers that could have been Conrads and Yozaks, he knew how she had to have felt, but could he truly make that promise to Conrad?

"…" Yuuri's eyes turned serious, if he could hold off from using the Maoh's powers until absolutely necessary, he could lengthen his usefulness, but the question was whether that would be beneficial or wasteful.

He knew he'd try for himself, just surrendering over to his maoh self that he did not completely understand didn't seem right. He had to grow as a king, as a maoh into that maoh. That was the feeling Yuuri had. "I'll do my best, I hope that's enough."

Conrad seemed to take that as agreement to the terms as he led the surge from the treasure room toward the Southern wing.

The eerie silence was sickening. The sound was death and dying, Yuuri felt his own energies rising with adrenalin, as if trying to jump the gun and start healing everyone, but he knew that would not be effective. No, saving only a few was not enough. He needed to save them all, all of them, attackers included. They had reasons, they had families, sure he might not know what or who, but they had to exist!

Gwendel approached Conrad after spotting Gunter and Yuuri with him. He rubbed the brow of his nose, he knew this was coming, just in time to join his ever-growing eye twitch. "What are you doing? Get him to a safe area!"

"No." Yuuri's voice held a firmness that took Gwendel back, had the young man been glowing he'd have understood, but as it were, this was still the 'child' version of their maoh, most certainly not the all-powerful magic-wielder, no, this was a weak, stubborn, naïve child who held that tone.

Gwendel wondered if Yuuri somehow managed to grow more than he had caught on in his past few visits and absences from Shin Madoku, but recalling earlier, he just couldn't see it.

"We have a plan to drive them out. If we use the bone-tribe as well as a portion of our units, we can push them from the East and North into the Courtyard, Yozak will have Wolfram's units mobilize after they finish off anyone fooled by the ruse to then double back to the West Wing."

Gunter added, "I can have a set of our best magic-users line the towers and castle walls to act as snipers."

"And I'll press into the Courtyard, Conrad will be my guard." Yuuri added, with a fierce voice, relaying the command.

"And only Conrad?" Gwendel mentioned, slightly peevish that so much pressure would be put on his younger brother. Yuuri may not realize how many people it was, but they did. To lose both would be horrific, not as though losing only one would be better. "This is foolish. If this is the best you can do, go back to a safe--"

"I will do more than enough. Conrad will be my personal guard, the troops will surge to pinch in leaving more than enough man-power if it comes to that." Yuuri mumbled in more of his usual tone, "Heh, 'if' it comes to that… But I believe I can do it, I believe I can help. Don't you believe in me yet? Or is it only the maoh that you answer to…?"

"Your majesty, you are the maoh." Conrad said, putting his hand on Yuuri's shoulder, "That doesn't change how Gwendel feels for you, he doesn't want anything to happen to you, in any form you're in."

Gwendel looked at Conrad with short eyes, he could hardly just send Yuuri to certain death and Yuuri seemed most capable in that specific form, as the maoh. Therefore, if anything, he was more worried for Yuuri than he would have to be had the black-haired youth simply transformed. "I answer to the twenty-seventh maoh of Shin Madoku, Shibuya Yuuri, Your Majesty."

Yuuri smiled, "Thank you. Then we should get started while we still have the upper hand… if you can call this that."

After what seemed like a grueling eternity, the loyal Madoku army had been able to push the invaders away from the periphery and toward the courtyard after a mere thirty-seven minutes. The bone tribe had acted with phenomenal strength, far out-lasting the fading energy of the invading horde.

Yuuri stepped forward into the courtyard at the first sounds of elemental attacks. Whether it had been Gunter's men or the roaming sorcerer-assassin would have made little difference.

Concentrating, Yuuri set up a watery shield spiraling around quickly as a ring rose up to knee level, enhanced by a growing wind. Focusing his eyes on his hands, he envisioned capsules of water, throwing them at the fiery attacks the enemy users were slinging about.

It seemed to Conrad as though the soldiers were still confused as to whether this had been the maoh's work or 'Yuuri's' as some dared to start approaching. A part of Conrad understood how Yuuri wanted to stand on his own, but another part wondered if now was really the appropriate time and stage.

As he continually observed Yuuri and his enemies it dawned on him what Yuuri was really doing. He was weakening the near-exhausted soldiers with his lower-level powers, soon he would transform in a burst… and then after his collapse, they'd have to make their tactical advance.

Yuuri knew he was near his limits when his water shield only partially deflected an attack by the sorcerer, the wind attack managed to slide Yuuri toward the epicenter of their own counter-attack.

Eyes closed, he could hear his heartbeat, the drops of water falling to the ground, everything with clarity, even Conrad's frantic call, "YUURI!"

In that instance, his eyes opened with cat-like slits, the air around him glowing a fantastic blue as water itself decided to raise from the ground to dance for their maoh. Hands of mud stretched out from the dirt clutching at the soldiers' feet and ankles.

As the hands began to reach out further, forming thousands of arms, they reached higher, pulling down the legs of the intruders. Pelting them with rain, Yuuri addressed them.

"For you to come here, attacking when unprovoked, harming those that you have walked among and betraying their trust is simply unforgiveable. I normally do not like to spill blood but you leave me no choice! Justice, be done!"

Water dragons arose among the mud hands, spinning themselves around the bodies of the soldiers, pulling them all waste deep into the courtyard.

The sorcerer, using fire and metal-based magic threw a magma attack over the courtyard, allowing it to rain down.

The Maoh created a massive water umbrella, shielding the courtyard from the damage as the sorcerer leapt through aiming himself for Yuuri's throat.

Conrad sliced into the air as the sorcerer used an air attack to propel himself outward, his body just barely avoiding the blade, his cloak not so lucky. The maoh's cat-like eyes caught eyes with the sorcerer, his pupils turned to thin slivers as his power-level flickered then rose.

At that moment, Conrad knew what Yuuri was starting to do—he was going into his reserves. The brunette realized the gravity of the situation, the sorcerer was trying to do this… He was doing anything and everything to bring down the maoh, but he seemed to know far too much to be just anyone…

Then the maoh did something amazing, something Conrad had never seen before, and frankly would prefer never to see again, as it was rather horrific.

The sorcerer had extended his weapons from three separate places, simultaneously, to Conrad's horror, Conrad had managed to displace two, but the third moved at an angle even he could not reach to in time.

That was when he saw it… That was when he saw the thing penetrate through the Maoh's body, then reflect outward, straight back into the sorcerer.

The sorcerer dropped to the ground, unconscious. Immediately following, the Maoh, after transforming back into Yuuri's form, fell into Conrad's arms. Shocked beyond any words, Conrad scoured Yuuri's body for apparent wounds. After all—the attack went right through his side under his ribs, where his stomach would be.

Nothing. There wasn't a mark. Conrad was ecstatic that it was the case, but concerned as to how that was even possible.

Finally collecting enough of his senses, after ten seconds of sheer dread, Conrad scanned the area finding all the enemies incapacitated, but, as per Yuuri's norm, alive. He lifted Yuuri silently in his arms and proceeded toward the southern wing. He needed an explanation, now.

Gunter, as per his norm, came rushing down to gush compliments upon Yuuri the very second he was awake. Conrad captured Gunter's arm, wanting to know the bird's eye view of what that was. "Explain what to me, just happened on that last attack, Gunter."

Looking at Conrad, with a bit of confusion, replied, "What do you mean; his deflection? It was flawless, your majesty, it was an exquisite moment to be recorded forever into Shin Madoku history!"

"From the ground it appeared he was stabbed by the blade in the attack. You had a different vantage, I'll say this again, EXPLAIN."

"W… What!? No, of course he hadn't been. He used folded layers of water to reflect his image, none of the attack would have touched him, he was half a meter to the right from where they were aimed."

Conrad breathed in a sigh, "Is this the first time he's used that strategy, that technique that you've observed?"

"Ah, yes, from your angle you would never be able to tell… To my knowledge, yes, that was the first."

The brunette stole a page from Gwendel's book by rubbing his temples with an onset of a headache that was coming strong. "I'll take his majesty to my room, forgive me but I'll ask for you to have Yozak take lead of my men to assist with clean up while I tend to his majesty."

Conrad lifted Yuuri's light frame with both his arms and walked with a gentle pace back to his room.

He quickly laid Yuuri into his bed and dug out of his armoire a reserve blanket to set over the prone young man.

"Yuuri?" He asked softly, trying to coax the younger man to awaken.

Instead, his response was a muffled, "Nn." That was hardly the sign of consciousness he had hoped for. Although, Conrad decided he would eagerly accept any response that didn't sound of agonizing pain or a body weakened to the point of death as a very big plus.

He took Yuuri's left hand in both of his and wished he had the ability to heal as Yuuri did just by willing it.

He wondered if First Maoh Shinou was playing mind games with him when Yuuri stirred. No, his hand wasn't glowing, so that couldn't be it… Conrad deduced.

Yuuri's eyes flickered open and closed in a rapid succession before opening with full awareness to them, "Eh? Again, the room's different again!"

Conrad had to laugh at that, which had Yuuri whipping to face him at break-neck speed. "C…Conrad!" Yuuri blushed, but Conrad did not let go of the hand. How could he lose the only physical contact with Yuuri, the one that proved he was really there, really alive, really not dying, not run through…

"Please forgive me, but I can't make my hands open, they refuse to." Conrad locked his eyes with Yuuri's.

That warm, compassionate look was basked with sorrow, relief, and still something more Yuuri couldn't understand, it was a deep and complicated sensation he felt as it gently pressed into him, but he was just as guilty as Conrad, he wasn't able to turn his eyes from that longing look, nor was he able to pull away his left hand. He was merely only able to watch him reflect back from Conrad's eyes.

"Ah, I didn't go over my limit did I? I really tried not to… I mean it! Honest!"

Conrad cast his eyes downward towards Yuuri's shoulder then made a soft scoff before looking back at Yuuri relieved, the air seemed to lighten. "Of course not Yuuri, after all, you would never lie to me."

Yuuri blushed profusely, "Ah… um, ha… ha… ah…" He couldn't really think of what to say, he was totally disarmed and in a, albeit very comfortable, bizarre situation. He reflected inwardly about how happy this made him feel.

Conrad, with him, unharmed. Shin Madoku, safe even after all that happened. Wolfram, very far away, as was Greta, though the reasons to rejoice for that were slightly different. He was in CONRAD'S room, meaning hardly any unnecessary disruptions could possibly occur, and, while he often only admitted this to himself at night, on Earth, Conrad was his most favorite of all. He loves Conrad, and here he is, in this situation…

And is that look one of hunger? …It is, that's what it was! It was hunger… but for what? What was Conrad hungry for?

Yuuri looked back at Conrad's hands clasping his, "Conrad, may I ask… and you answer honestly no matter what, a personal question? I mean I understand if you don't want to but…"

"Of course, I would do anything for you, Yuuri."

"…Okay then, right…" Yuuri winced his eyes closed, this was incredibly awkward, he felt like all those 16 year old girls confessing to their upper-classmates their feelings for love. Yup, those girls who never gave him time of day, not like he really cared when there was Conrad. "Conrad, I… I was wondering, what is it that you desire? In your eyes, whenever I look into them, when we're talking I see this look of passion that I just can't place, and I was wondering… what that was. I mean, if it's too personal you don't have to answer it, I won't order you, but… that is… I just… want to know more about you, you're my favorite person… probably the reason I really kept coming back to Shin Madoku when everything was so hard."

Conrad looked down, "Ah, your majesty, I don't mean to sound impertinent, but that sounds like a love confession."

"SO WHAT IF IT DOES!" Yuuri blushed, "Er, I mean… I didn't mean to yell. I'm sorry… maybe we should just drop it? I don't want to offend you…"

"It's you. Whenever I speak with you, it's that passion you see." Conrad answered. Yuuri felt slightly gypped by that.

"What do you mean? You mean my reflection like if you talked to Gunter you'd see his, or if you look in the mirror yours? If you don't want to tell me what you want you don't have to… but don't just make up something… to lead me on about it."

"I think you've misunderstood, somewhere, Yuuri." Conrad released his left hand from gripping Yuuri's, instead using it to cup Yuuri's face before moving in to kiss Yuuri's full lips. "I mean what desire you see when you look in my eyes, what I desire more than anything is everything for and of you, Yuuri. I desire you." He pulled away, "You already know of course the complications that brings." He sighed and slid his back against the wall, his right hand still refusing to refute its hold to Yuuri.

Yuuri moved his right hand to cover his mouth, shocked. "…Really?"

"…"

"…You really… you mean you have feelings for me? You mean you think of me when you sleep and eat, that you feel lonely when I'm not around? Do you mean that?"

"Yes."

"…So you mean I'm not the only one who has been having the exact same feeling?" Yuuri touched his right hand to his chest, "…I… I think I might faint, Conrad." He took in a few deep breaths.

"Yuuri, please calm down and rest then, if you'd let me, I would like to watch over you as you slept in case you need anything."

Yuuri nodded his head three times in rapid succession, still trying to rein in his breathing.

Conrad watched as the pure, fragile Yuuri brought himself into an exhaustive sleep all the while wondering who that damnable sorcerer was, who he worked for, and his agenda. Even though he knew he didn't truly have the time to think about how to proceed with Yuuri and Wolfram's faux engagement, he couldn't say the thought didn't come to mind, nor did the thought of what Adelbert might say, or even Yuuri, someday, about whether this was for Julia or for Yuuri these feelings in his heart.

He knew, though. Julia was a ghost, a precious person, confidant and friend, and though those feelings of love might have developed given time, he hadn't been given that time. Even now, he knew he shouldn't have harbored those feelings, but even since the time of Yuuri's birth and the thoughts of having Julia back… Yuuri wasn't but was her, in his eyes though, it was no longer truly just Julia over-embossed Yuuri, nor was it really the other way around. Slowly, it had been Yuuri he had truly fallen in love with. That was where his heart rested, how was he going to explain this to his thick, stubborn little brother?

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	5. Part 5 Towering Knowledge

Towering Knowledge, part 5 by Vanessa S. Quest

AN: Haha, I'll take this time to say this has just been modified to --M-- thanks to this chapter, I think it would count as such at least. This is, well, not heading down the merry little road of bubbles and cupcakes. Without giving too much away, Yozak's earlier thoughts give too much away. Read on if you dare, I hope you like it, and if you disagree with the new rating, please remember that it is better safe than kicked off the server! Please R & R!

Conrad waited until very early in the morning before leaving Yuuri's side. He straightened himself up, fixing the buttons on his uniform shirt. He would normally have changed into another uniform but he knew his chore was about to be messy and he'd rather not expand his collection of laundry for the maids to tend to.

He tapped on Yozak's shoulder as he passed him in the hallway, three strides from his bedroom door. "Yozak, please guard his majesty in my absence." His eyes were darkening in such a way that Yozak knew exactly where that absence would be keeping him.

"Ah, I should say that his highness doesn't like to kill people, and if that sorcerer were to die he'd probably think it was his fault."

Conrad smiled softly at the thought of Yuuri, but his eyes seemed more nostalgic than warmed, the darkness was still burning in the back after all. His face became serious once more, "Oh, you think I would kill a man just by interrogating him?"

Yozak swallowed, "In that mood? On second thought, I'm sure his majesty Yuuri would see it as a mercy-killing."

Conrad quirked and relaxed his brow once at Yozak almost as if he was willing to contemplate on the idea, of course, the joke did make him less likely to break the man's femur. Well, maybe not BOTH of them, at any rate he had to get to the holding cell before Yuuri would think of what a great idea it would be to get the words straight from the horse's mouth.

The sorcerer seemed to be acting like he was hung-over. Conrad walked up to the outside of the door, two guards flanking him as he entered. The guards remaining on the other side of the door locked it.

Conrad drew a chair from behind the table, turning the back of the chair to be closest to the table, he straddled the chair, leaning forward. First he'd play nice-guy. Everyone seemed to buy that impersonation.

"Name and rank?" Conrad said, he acted in the sympathetic I know you won't give me more, but I still have to start the paperwork tone.

He wondered if the assassin remembered who he was, not as though that mattered.

"You already have it on file from my earlier visit." The man growled.

"Ah, force of habit. You don't seem to be feeling too well." Conrad smiled softly.

"Well, with the king of demons still alive, and in his jail no less…" He made a gesture in the air. Brown eyes turned a bit more fierce, though he knew how the game was played, as did his guest, it seemed.

"Ah, well, I can't help cure you of that affliction. Have you eaten yet?"

The man held his hand over his mouth, not looking too happy to have food mentioned to him.

"Oh, I see, so you're not hungry. Water then?" The man shook his hand dismissing the offer, his color recovering.

"I don't need to piss or shit either, so why don't you ask me what you really want to know."

"Oh? What do you think I really came here to ask?" Conrad laughed, scratching the back of his head. "After all, the blanks are already fairly filled in. Unless you wanted to add in more or confess, though that is rather pointless, as you can tell we have plenty of witnesses."

"Ha! You really think that's everything?" The man smirked, thinking how stupid this was, this guy was trying to mess with him, wasn't he? He cracked his neck side to side. "No one asked me why I wanted his head."

"Oh, I see, we had thought you had just wanted to kill him, but a keepsake! I don't see the practicality of it."

"Ha! Like I'd keep something as unlucky as a double black! I'd as soon chop off my hand if it touched that cursed thing, but you know how some people are with their strange requests, proofs and all."

"Hmm, it doesn't say you're married here, your girlfriend must be pregnant."

"What?! No! I'd never keep something like that near me! I just said that! No, I should say that some merchants just sell weird things." With that he smiled. "Interested in a story?"

Conrad shook his head, "Not particularly, but if you're just trying to keep yourself entertained…" Conrad's eyes darkened visibly and caught the man's eyes, then hand. "You said you'd cut off the hand, huh? Well, we can hardly give you any such weapon. Shall I help?"

The man's eyes went wide as Conrad looked back at him, pleasantly again. "W-What?!"

"I said did you require our help in cutting off your—"

"Absolutely NOT!" The man held his arm protectively.

"Oh, but with your _story_… I'd have sworn you were asking me to…" He took out a dagger and twirled the blade under his fingernail, cleaning out the imaginary dirt underneath.

"Ah…ah… there is no merchant! It was just a story! You want the truth? Why should I just give it away for free!"

"Hmm, I suppose you're right." Conrad looked at his hand and nails as if he had just completely his manicure. He stabbed the knife deeply into the table, "How about this, you know this is the castle of the maoh, so, theoretically you know about demons, right?" Conrad pretended to witness a nod, "Right. So, as I'm sure you can imagine, demons love flesh, they can't get enough of it, so… you see, we have all of your information, we know you're guilty… frankly, we already have your punishment in mind." Conrad closed his eyes as if he was saying something so matter-of-fact as the daily weather report.

"We were going to execute you, feeding you to the demon-foundlings, their eyes glow such an adorable red when they crunch on bones…" Conrad made loving eyes as he imagined it, as that was exactly what he was doing.

"But you see, what fun is it to do it all at once, right? It's hardly fresh… so we chop people up while they're alive, transport the parts to the nursery… yada-yada, you can fill in the rest. It gets boring telling it to people again and again, you're smart enough to realize where that's going. Anyhow, we can… push back each 'delivery' if you tell us the true answer to a question or provide us with some good information. We feed the little darlings on a twenty-minute cycle, they grow up so fast you know, but, they do have a nap-time at midday, and go to bed by sunset."

Conrad nodded, "Meaning some people get to stay alive for DAYS! Isn't that wonderful for them? They get to even try to pray for forgiveness… Oh, right, it's almost time for their first meal, I see the sun rising." His smile beamed as if he was convinced that it was absolutely the best luck ever.

The guard looked a bit blanched, the Captain was in top form today!

As if it were timed, Elle, across the castle ground's wailing informed her parents, and most of the light sleepers of the kingdom, that it was, in fact dawn. "Oh, well, she seems hungry." Conrad took the knife and was about to bring it down on the man.

"WAIT! Wait, what's the rush?" He smiled, dripping in fear, "And what happens when you find out everything you need, anyway?"

"Oh, I didn't think about that. Well, maybe they'll revisit your case and revise the punishment. If the maoh is pleased, he tends to be very _forgiving_." He took the knife back up, "Oh, are you left or right handed?"

"Ah… ahh… ah, is that the first question you want me to answer? The truth is I'm a righty."

"Ha, what relevance is that? Okay, left pinky it is." Conrad grabbed his hand and put it on the table.

"WHAT ABOUT GOOD FAITH! Ask first! Ask first! I'll tell!"

Conrad seemed to wonder why the man was frantic, what, it was only a pinky, he had nine other perfectly fine fingers, really. "Well…" Conrad sighed, lowering the knife, "if you insist, but do keep in mind we do have a schedule to follow!" His voice was stern, but again that of Mr. Nice Guy.

"Which assassins' syndicate are you affiliated with?"

"Th-th-the Venomous Mages."

"I've never heard of them." Conrad said, with a doubtful look, eying his dagger, "You know, I'm putting myself out there for you… and if you're just going to—"

"No! Really! That's my Guild! My crest, my crest is in my magic sack, it's inside the stuffed squirrel's mouth, under the tongue!"

One of the guards eyed it, "Captain… should we?"

"Go ahead, if he's trying to trick us, I'll just make sure the maids have enough to make a puree with two of his fingers."

"Yes, yes! I swear it's in there, it's not a trap!"

The guard pulled it out, unrolling a small scroll it showed the actual crest of a guild. "Hunh, new ones just keep cropping up…"

The man smiled, relieved, "We're hardly new."

Conrad smiled at him as if that was irrelevant. He couldn't believe how easy this was going for him. Of course he knew about that guild, it did confirm that the fool would roll, though. Hell, if the sorcerer just screwed up slightly, he'd still get to rip off some fingernails; maybe even get to carve into him. After all, he had stabbed Yuuri. STABBED him. His Yuuri, his majesty, his world… the man seemed to have realized something.

"Oh, yes, they will be wondering why we haven't sent anything down yet. Pardon me for just one moment!" He said pleasantly, he walked to the door and whispered to the guard on the other side to inform Yozak that it seemed he'd need to keep an eye on Yuuri, and definitely keep him away from this area.

He returned to sit down, looking pleasant. "It seems they are disappointed, they do work so quickly. It appears that they will be expecting something, if you don't hurry and keep talking," he shook his head displeased, "I might not be able to get his majesty to rescind."

"What do you want to know?!"

Conrad seemed taken aback, "Are you sure you need that pinky?" The man's eyes widened in horror, "Alright, alright, who hired you to kill his majesty?"

"You know of Svelera…? Within the nation, a small cluster of city-states have banded together. The mayors of each town paid handsomely for us to murder the maoh who destroyed their country's mining, the one industry they had left!"

Conrad slumped back, not shocked, but he did have the guard note it down, "Did they only go to your guild? Or are you on a bid?" Conrad asked as if he was pondering the actual move.

"No, it was not a bid. They had tried to hire two other guilds, no one else would have the man-power or skills. If your next question is am I the only trained assassin, though," The man smiled sadly, "Not even close. Those ground soldiers were grunts and footholds, but they are neither trained like the assassin class nor the sorcerer class. Actually, if anything, three of my four colleagues are probably glad I've weakened that damnable monster so much. Oh, heh…" He looked outside at the midday sun, "The maids haven't come for a little while now. I think the foundlings are having nap time, that means I get to eat, doesn't it?"

Conrad bowed his head, "Of course. The maids may have leftovers from what they've been supplementing."

"Oh? And that is?"

Conrad smiled with a warning, "The two soldiers from the other room. Though I doubt there are leftovers, we usually go through 18 prisoners a day, so far we only have 16 that have been sentenced. As you said, in his weakened state…" He rolled his wrist, "What can I say? He's a hands-on sort of guy."

The prisoner looked very uncomfortable. "Shall I see though? After all, they make wonderful soups."

"N-No, I'm not hungry."

"Oh, but I'm sure they've even made lady's fingers… oh, sorry, no not yet." Conrad eyed his hands, "Are you sure you don't…"

"I HAVE MORE INFORMATION!" Conrad turned his ear to him. The man sighed.

"Why don't you tell me the tricks of your trade, you seem to know an awful lot about his majesty's weaknesses."

"That? You see, we often traded with Svelera, mages using their powerful stones and all, we create powerful spells, we sell some, others we buy and trade. They told us all the information they had gathered, including from the incident in their borders, the gambling town-- that's when they found out he could die from using up his magical energy. That's probably what they're up to right now, you know."

He looked out the window, just a little more, just another few hours.

"Oh, what do you mean by that?" Conrad eyed the knife, getting quite frazzled internally. He was starting to have a bad feeling.

"Planning, after all, the maoh form only shows up when a lot of people are in danger, right? So I attacked the castle, they'll attack some villages, or a bridge, maybe just attack the castle again. Who knows…?"

Conrad smiled, "Are you saying you do not?"

The man nodded, "Yeah. I am."

Conrad sighed, "Ah, well then, if that's the case." His voice that of a defeatist, until he lifted the knife, "We did say with lies…"

The man's eyes went wide as Conrad peeled back four nails from the nail beds. "They already had soup, lady-fingers would do no good. I suppose croutons in a salad though… Guard, give these to the men outside, they'll know to give it to the maids when they get here."

"AHHHH!" The man grasped his hand, he continued to scream.

"Please do calm down, I am trying to preserve you, after all, you're being so helpful… and you do seem so attached to that left finger…"

The man kept clutching his wrist trying to reel in his own breathing. He had forgotten the threat at hand. These demons!

"Shall we try that question again? Hmm, your hand seems so sore, I suppose I'll give it a break. So your toes next." Conrad smiled pleasantly as he instructed the guard to remove the prisoner's shoes.

The man screeched, pulling his leg away. "I'll tell you! I'll tell you! They're staying in the village three kilometers to the North following the wooded trail, the one that passes a lake."

"Are you sure ALL of your coworkers are?" He spun the blade threateningly on his finger like he'd seen basketball players on Earth do with those strange orange basketballs.

"N… No, only two. The other assassin is near that sickening shrine you keep to your demon-master, and the other sorcerer… well…"

"Well?" Conrad was approaching the man's toes.

"I know your stories about foundlings were lies! We've been through here many times, and you never even noticed! I can't believe you actually peeled my nails off!"

Conrad sighed, "Oh, then, if the charade is off." His face darkened. "Where is the other sorcerer?"

"Ahaha! By now? By now with you, his private guard and personal knight, being so far away for so long?" He looked out the window at the near-setting sun, "About to kill the maoh right on these grounds. I do wonder how it'll be done. When he's distracted like an assassin, or maybe with magic… suck the life right out of him…!"

"Really?" Conrad smiled, and then chopped off three toes. "We'll see about that."

"Guard," Conrad signaled for the door to be opened. "I am sending you reinforcements, if he tries to escape—move from that chair—blinks, use as much force as you have to in order to subdue him. Oh! I should mention, your toys were destroyed last night, it seems his majesty is quite good at wrecking those sort of stones as Svelera can attest."

For good measures, Conrad stabbed the man's left hand then took back his knife. "By the way, only left-handed people pull a chair out that way."

He exited and began to move through the grounds, he knew where Yozak was likely to take Yuuri.

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	6. Part 6 Coming Deluge

Coming Deluge, part 6 by Vanessa S. Quest

Yuuri sat on the railing overlooking the balcony, kicking his feet that dangled over the stone floor as he spoke with Yozak.

He seemed to be brooding slightly, after having that confession and confirmation of their feelings, and instead of any kind of consummation Conrad runs off before Yuuri woke up to work. Yozak was put in charge of him, instead. In a way, Yuuri knew Conrad was doing that as a protective gesture, he didn't say Wolfram, though he supposed Conrad damn well better not… not Gwendel or Gunter, though paperwork ruled them out. He chose his most trusted of all his men, one of the few people that even approached Conrad when it came to swordsmanship.

Well, approached, Yozak didn't surpass, no one did. That was one of those really cool things about Conrad! He was so great with stuff like that.

"Oi, boyo, you seem so distracted. If you start sighing romantically you know rumors will start flying."

Yuuri chuckled at that, "Start?"

Yozak was actually impressed if Yuuri actually wasn't as oblivious as everyone made him out to be. That meant that maybe he just was so in love with Conrad that it didn't really matter? Oh gods how Yozak would love it if that were true, his bachelor pal was starting to cramp his drag-queen style! He could hardly mingle with the gentlemen when they were facing off against HIM. Yozak laughed with Yuuri.

Yuuri sighed, kicking himself off of his seat on the railing, now standing on the stone floor. He looked up to see the third flying bone tribesman in the past twenty minutes fly over past him.

"Mou, I wonder if they're being dragged into clean-up, too?" Yuuri half-wondered why he, himself, hadn't been dragged into that yet.

"Oi, maybe they're just bored? They do like spending time with you, after all, your majesty, Yuuri."

Yuuri looked at Yozak with a weird look. "I don't see what's so special about me." He stretched, "Ne, so where is Conrad, Yozak?"

"The Captain is doing boring, tedious paperwork that Gunter will no-doubt be helping him with soon. Did you want to do something fun, I heard Conrad showed you how to play cards."

Yuuri's eyes widened. "A…ha… ha, um, I think he let me win on purpose."

"All the more reason to play against me, I won't let you off so easily." Yozak made a face at Yuuri.

"Okay."

"So, the cards are in the Captain's room?" He gave Yuuri a mischievous look, "After that, we could look through his wardrobe… see some of his clothes he doesn't usually wear…"

Yuuri blushed, "N… No! We couldn't do that, it would be rude!"

Yozak gave him a winning thumb's up, "That's if we're caught. I'm a great spy, so he'll never know."

Yuuri looked to the side as if debating some temptation, "No. No it wouldn't be right!" Yuuri decided.

"Alright, alright. Suit yourself, that just means you don't get to look when I do it." Yozak said, after pulling open the first drawer in Conrad's armoire, after all, if anything Conrad would glow if he thought Yuuri had thumbed around in his drawers… Yozak supposed it extended to the actual furniture-type as well.

"Yozak! Aren't we supposed to be playing cards!" Yuuri said a bit indignantly, his face was red as Yozak pulled clothing out, he tossed one thing at Yuuri, before pulling out the cards. "YOZAC!"

Yuuri was bright red with Conrad's pajama pants now draping over him, the crotch landing straight in his face as Yuuri pulled it down. Yozak just held his fingers out in a victory-V holding the deck of cards. "What? He put the cards away."

Yuuri folded the pants back up, along the almost anal-retentively perfect fold-lines before slipping it back into the drawer thinking to himself how Conrad will NEVER find out about that while simultaneously thinking to himself how Conrad was going to know it was him or something because he folded it wrong or something.

"Besides, I thought that he said you could use his room. That means you have a chance to peek around and not be suspicious at all for it."

"…I wouldn't say that..." Yuuri mumbled to himself.

Yuuri walked over to Conrad's desk and briefly wondered if Conrad kept a diary. He shook his head, chastising himself for the thought. He sat on the bed as Yozak sat in the chair, shuffling the cards and dealing them out to Yuuri and himself.

He was fairly impressed, Yozak was actually able to distract Yuuri with that card game for the most of the afternoon. He supposed the young man was getting a bit bored by this point, though.

"Ah, so what do you want to do?" Yozak said, after putting away the cards, slipping them on top of the pajama pants.

"Do you think Conrad's still busy?" Yuuri asked, sure he could have went to spend time with Greta over at the shrine. She seemed to have taken a shining to some story-telling Amazonian guard that he truthfully hoped wasn't telling her stories anything like Anissina's adventures. No, ignorance was bliss in that matter. He supposed he could have found Wolfram, technically. Not like he particularly felt like being pawed at today, well definitely not by THAT brother of the three. Gwendel and Gunter would have put him to work, so Yozak was his only shot at fun, relaxing, restful freedom. Until he could catch up with Conrad at least.

"Unfortunately, yeah. What happened last night wasn't a minor thing, you should understand. Everyone will probably be busy for the next few weeks before everything's sorted out."

Yuuri groaned, "Weeks…?" He wouldn't be able to take that! He'd go insane if he couldn't spend time with Conrad for that much time…

"How about we take a walk through the gardens?" Yozak offered.

That seemed to be an acceptable answer as Yuuri nodded his consent. They headed out of the palace corridor and found their way outside.

"He should be done by dinner, you can hold out until then, ne?"

Yuuri noticed the almost setting sun, his shoulders slumped, "If I have to." He smiled as he noticed how love-sick and bratty he was acting. Poor Yozak just played the same card game for five hours trying to teach him how to beat Conrad for real with that game. Yuuri didn't think it was possible for Conrad to lose though, Yozak seemed to not be so inclined.

As Yuuri walked around the same gargoyle a third time, looking at its strange features and petrified snarl he caught the glimpse of brown hair taking a corner. He cocked his head to the side then began to walk to the periphery of the garden.

Yozak's eyes were shifting around, something wasn't right.

"Oi, Boyo, where did you disappear to?" He looked around with serious eyes, keeping his voice kidding in tone.

"Is there someone here?" Yuuri asked as he approached the corner.

Yozak's eyes shot wide, he began to run toward Yuuri when the black-haired figure dropped like a sack of potatoes, mimicking the thumps as he hit the stone floor.

"YUURI!" Yozak drew his sword as he reached Yuuri, checking his vitals while scanning the walkway. He pulled Yuuri back, away from the entry.

Yuuri's eyes began to blink open. He felt like the wind was knocked out of—he saw a serpent made of electricity spiraling at him from seemingly nowhere, Yozak was saying something, he saw his lips moving but…? He didn't seem to hear what was being said. Didn't Yozak see that thing coming at them!!

Yuuri pushed Yozak off the stony pathway, he himself rolling past as the lightning blast struck the stone, turning it black.

The orange-haired man seemed to be in disbelief, Yuuri staggered to his feet.

"Boyo, we're getting out of here, NOW!" He grabbed Yuuri's hand, Yuuri whipped his hand from his grasp, eyes taking in the panoramic view. His hair was growing in length and just as he began to glow, another electrical serpent seemed to dart towards him.

His own water dragon tangled around it, smothering away the attack. Two more came, the maoh's dragons wrapped around the head of one, a new head and body snaked out from before the dragon and threatened to strike Yuuri before he threw out a powerful water shield.

Another electrical snake came from behind, Yuuri's form began to levitate as his dragons continued to lock grips, completely tangling themselves with the electric serpent elementals.

His cat eyes spotted something above him as he rose up higher.

A woman dressed in something perhaps as slutty as Cheri's 'superhero' costume, in white, remained stationary in the air above Yuuri. She bent over to look at the maoh showing off massive cleavage, brown hair kept in a thick, long braid drooping down almost low enough to touch him. She smiled at him with a lecherous look.

"So I did pick the right shade." She ran her fingers through her thick hair changing it to an unnatural shade of icy-blue before flipping out a compact mirror. Making several hand gestures with her free hand, she finally pointed her palm towards the Maoh's face before a torrent of sparks lit up the sky. When she looked back down she noticed a wall of water receding, more serpents appeared from the ground this time as the Maoh summoned more dragons.

Conrad stood in the garden, looking up at what was transpiring, furious. Yozak looking at him equally concerned. "It's a ploy…! She's just drawing this out in order to drain him." He quickly explained to Yozak, "YUURI! YUURI STOP THIS NOW!"

She looked down at the two people on the ground, "Aw, booooo. I just wanted to spend time with YOU," she took out two paper cut-outs and threw them to the ground, two serpents dodged the Maoh's dragons to hit the papers. They became two 7-foot-tall electric monsters. "Why don't you kill them so they don't interrupt my fun."

One of the golems swiped at Yozak, who leapt back avoiding the fresh-formed crater. The maoh's attention momentarily split, he summoned his own golems of earth to battle their electric counterparts.

She smiled at him playfully, "Oh, you want to play just with me, too. Shall we go up then, where there are no distractions?" She hinted pointing skyward. Conrad was fuming, how exactly was someone demonstrating THAT much power? No, that was impossible, and for her to divide her focus like that without any hiccup…

He looked around spotting a possible explanation.

Wolfram and Gwendel were approaching the garden just as Conrad realized the cause—

"Yozak! There are four assassins, three of them are on ground using amplification stones. We have to find them and destroy those stone NOW, if we don't Yuuri's not going to survive!"

The maoh took in a few gasps of air as his charge was countered by blocks.

She giggled, "Wow, you look tired. You know, if you fall from here… there's no way you'd survive."

"So you were in connection with last night's failed siege?"

She smirked, "Failed? Ha, is that what you think? Look at you, this is like fighting a kitten. Ne, should I just kill you off now?" She watched her mirror, her face shifting for a moment before she began her descent. It looked like she had dove in a jack-knife as she sped toward the ground.

The maoh hardly had a complaint in taking the fight lower, he allowed his water platform lower him like an elevator.

Black hair whipped around in the wind as fewer and fewer electrical attacks were coming, they were almost on the ground when he heard the woman shrill.

There on the ground were three very unconscious, suspicious looking people, and a pale, angry looking Wolfram breaking some blood-red stones under his feet.

She glared, "So you took down the amplifiers, like hell it matters with him in THAT state."

Taking out a short-sword that could have been a companion-piece with a katana, she rushed the maoh as his hair began to shorten.

Yuuri began to fall forward while she drew her blade so that the length aligned with her forearm. She slashed toward his abdomen. Hearing the sounds of contact and metal, Conrad's blade forced her back.

Conrad took a more according stance keeping himself between Yuuri and whoever this woman was.

She stopped to straighten her hair. "Oh ho, how manly, one versus five… and a half." She smirked as she looked down at Yuuri behind Conrad. "I'd say all I have left is to breathe on him and my job's done."

Looking at her nails, she then made a sudden lunge at Conrad, who quickly deflected her, sending her tumbling down onto the ground.

Calming himself, he took his stance back up, again adjusting his body position to keep her between her and his master.

Yozak slipped behind Conrad, lifting Yuuri in his arms, "Leave him to me, Captain, I'll move the boyo a healthy distance." Conrad made a slide nod.

"Those are big words." The panting woman remarked, "You're a fool if you're planning on letting me live. I'll just keep coming at you until you're not able to block."

Wolfram scoffed aloud, "Says the woman whose been strenuously fighting the maoh for how long?" He quirked his brow.

"With the misfortune to have struck swords with the Ruttenberg Patriot."

Her eyes narrowed. "Like I believe in old war-stories. There weren't any survivors there." She made another forward advance, Conrad side-stepped, causing her blade to be extended past him.

Attempting to use it as a hook, she pulled her arm back sharply, only to have her blade flung from her now severed hand as Conrad forced the blade forward with his hilt, he struck her in the collar bone with his elbow causing her hand to go lax, dropping the blade.

He kicked away the weapon and held the sword at her with grievous eyes that quickly corrected her interpretation of that little war story.

"You're a devil!" Her irises became pinholes with the bloodshot whites of her eyes taking up an ever-larger amount of her facial features.

Conrad smiled in one of his most charming, bitterly sarcastic, gentle faces as he clarified, "Actually, I'm only half." He struck her with the hilt of his sword in her ocular nerve within the nape of her neck.

Gwendel had a handful of guards remand the prisoners.

Conrad glanced at his brother, "You know, as they are members of an assassination ring, some of our neighboring countries with much more stringent penalties may just have outstanding warrants."

Wolfram gave Conrad a strange look, "You mean execution?" He said rhetorically, surprised only slightly that Conrad would be so backhanded.

Yozak wiped a finger under his nose after returning from behind the castle walls. Seeming to have heard Wolfram he commented, "Actually… I believe the phrase is mercy-killing. It appears Sir Weller here got a bit over-zealous with the last one… really, Captain, cutting off toes…? Tch, remind me about that next time I'm getting on your bad side, ne?"

Gwendel looked a bit shocked, "…Toes?"

"Well, I did feel bad about peeling up his nails, he screamed so loudly…" Conrad twirled his hand in the air, "and, he is alive."

"Hah. He left out stabbing his hand and psychologically scarring the guards with mentions of feeding small children human extremities, lady fingers? You owe them a round of drinks."

"For the record, Yozak is making this all up, he had an unfortunate accident in the cell and his majesty will only hear THAT version." He said, flashing them all that award-winning smile, the one Yuuri thought could warm him even if he was a block of ice suddenly felt dangerously cold as the other brothers just quickly consented.

They turned to face away mumbling different excuses, "…I'll go start the claims forms…" Gwendel said as he ducked out.

"I'll get the accident reports from the guards…" Wolfram added, heading away in the opposite direction.

"Captain, you're always so good with people, how do you do it." Yozak joked.

"It's my award-winning smile, that's what Yuuri keeps claiming." He stretched then glared at Yozak, "Where is he and in what state?"

"Heheheh, he seems fine, lying there like a cat."

Conrad's scarred brow perked, "There?"

"In your bed of course. Oh, I'm rooting for you, so if you need any help, oh, say, convincing a certain blondy that Yuuri and he are completely incompatible and to call it off…"

"That will be ALL Yozak."

"Yes, sir." Yozak teased before he, himself bowed out.

Conrad made his way toward his room.

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	7. Part 7 Disastrous Wake

Disastrous Wake, part 7 by Vanessa S. Quest

Conrad straightened his tussled features, re-sheathed his sword, smoothed down his hair and uniform, straightening his collar and tails of his shirt before giving himself the once-over view to make sure no blood was showing as he stood outside of his door. He seemed so orderly that the concept of sweat seemed to evaporate along with any traces of any such human-like bodily function leaving him as plain old perfect Conrad.

He tapped on the door with him left hand with two knuckles, his palm facing toward himself. Turning his hand this way did two things, one- it made his knock pronounced but soft, two- it made him look debonair and noble. To no surprise, Yuuri did not comment from behind the door, so Conrad entered his own bedroom to check on the black-haired king.

He approached the bed and touched Yuuri's bangs. Unlike Conrad who could only be envisioned in his 'perfect' undisheveled form, Yuuri was sodden in sweat, under his eyes laced with tired, dark bags, skin fairer than normal… This was Yuuri in his weariest of states. His lips were just slightly parted as he took in soft breaths.

"Yuuri…" Conrad commented taking in this prone view, Yuuri seemed to be able to make anything sexy, Conrad noted inwardly, yet equally annoyed at the present state. After all, it was a reminder of his own failings to protect Yuuri promptly. Sighing, he approached Yuuri to pet his face.

Black eyes batted open to take in a melancholy set of brown eyes.

"Ne? Conrad?" Yuuri smiled lightly before closing his eyes again, his voice dripped with the very essence of someone well past over-exerted. He slid up, back braced against the headboard.

"Yuuri, lay back down you need to rest." Conrad mentioned, seeing Yuuri revived as a two-edged sword.

The younger man smiled at him playfully, "How can I sleep if you're making a face like that?" Yuuri squinted his eyes closed as he gave himself a point.

Conrad's face was lightening up, but that didn't change the fact that Yuuri was still spent. "Well, your majesty, as your retainer I must implore you to take better care of yourself." He said in a voice more adult than Yuuri could remember his own parents' being.

"It's Yuuri!" He grumbled, crossing his arms to frump. Hearing Conrad laugh made Yuuri smile once more, he yawned and stretched his arms. "I didn't damage anything did I?" He looked around, inwardly noting that if he were going to keep changing rooms whenever he woke up, waking up here each time was an acceptable trade for his early-morning sanity.

"Not directly. Though, the garden does have a rather large crater now."

Yuuri bowed his head, "Urgh, now there's even more paperwork… I'm not going to run into you until I'm 20…"

Conrad covered his laugh to play it off as a cough. "I think that I'll pass that report onto Gunter." He smiled once more at Yuuri. "If you'd be so kind, I would appreciate it if you would rest now, Yuuri."

Yuuri closed his eyes, still propped against the headboard. "I won't go to sleep unless you kiss me." He teased, already half-way to dreamland.

Conrad surprised him by bowing his head in to kiss him, not saying a word nor letting a second pass before taking up the opportunity. After ten seconds he pulled back. "I believe that was a proper kiss, so, as arranged please go to sleep now."

Yuuri blushed bright shades of pink before sliding back down onto Conrad's mattress, "Mm!" He closed his eyes, he was so shocked he felt like he'd never be able to sleep after something like… like… THAT. However, over-all exhaustion won out and within thirty seconds he was unconscious.

After what seemed like a power-nap, Yuuri's eyes began to flutter open, he grumbled. "Darn it, I knew my luck wouldn't hold out." He mentioned as he noticed he was lying in his own bedroom, he turned to the side, and to his horror saw a globular form of pink and blond.

He sighed as he sat up, "Wolfram… what are you doing in here?"

The blond sat up looking at Yuuri, his own eyes heavy, he wrapped an arm around Yuuri and pulled him back down to bed, snuggling him. "It's late, go back to bed."

An hour later, Yuuri had finally escaped the death-grip via pink nightie and had managed to carve himself into a corner of the bed before the tangled legs in the blanket finally caught up with him as he moved. He fell to the ground with a clatter, he grumbled.

He noticed the door crack open as someone came to investigate the noise.

"Eh?" He felt someone bow down beside him to help him sit up properly, after his eyes adjusted past just seeing shades of brown, Conrad's proper image came into view, though frankly Yuuri knew it had been him since his scent wafted to him from the doorway. "Conrad?" He questioned.

"You fell out of the bed." The older man explained as he repositioned Yuuri on the bed, completely ignoring the pink mass taking up a ridiculous amount of real estate. "Good night."

Yuuri grabbed his wrist and gave him a bit of an annoyed pout, "You know you're going to justify this to me in the morning."

Conrad gave him that insufferably charming smile that basically meant instantaneous surrender on Yuuri's behalf. "Yes, yes. In the morning, it's late and we should try not to wake that up." He pointed suggestively to his kid brother, "Good night, Yuuri."

Yuuri blushed, and as per tradition, bowed to Conrad's smile and will.

As the first few rays of sunlight peeked through the curtains Yuuri was more than willing to awaken, dressed in his morning exercise clothing and out the door waiting for Conrad who looked at him a bit surprised.

"Good morning, Yuuri."

"Good morning Conrad! I was going to do my morning training…" He explained, as it seemed that Conrad was shocked by his appearance.

"Of… course," he smiled softly, "Would you like me to accompany you?"

Yuuri nodded with a strong confidence. "Perfect, then you can explain last night to me." He smiled in a strangely threatening manner.

Conrad merely shirked his eyebrows as if thinking of how to explain something as if he were conjuring a logical reason for a child like how to describe 'air'.

By time they had gotten a third the way through the normal morning jog Yuuri seemed winded, Conrad slowed down, waiting for Yuuri to catch his breath. "Eh?! Why am I so winded…I didn't knock myself that much off my game after the squirrel bite, did I?"

The brunette felt a bit of a sweat approaching, "That probably helped, but, you've been asleep for a few days now, Your Majesty, so your body has been inactive."

"It's YUURI …a few days?" Yuuri's eyebrow rose, asking for clarification.

"Five days." Conrad nodded once answering matter-of-factly.

"…Five days?!" Yuuri expelled a breath, they continued to jog, "Then as for my being in my room…?"

"Regrettably, it was due to Wolfram preaching propriety, also, my bed is a twin so it was hard to argue for disturbing your comfort."

"But on Earth I sleep on a twin, that's fine!" Yuuri complained, remembering how that annoying blond had chased him around and off his bed during that supposed recovery period, anyway!

"Yes, but on Earth you're not sharing."

Yuuri looked at Conrad, as if missing something critical as they jogged on, "Wolfram invaded your room? I'm so sorry…"

"Ah, that's not with whom you shared my bed with." Conrad looked to the side as if trying how to describe something conceptual to a child like 'air'.

Yuuri stopped dead in his tracks, his own forward momentum threatening to send him toppling to the ground until Conrad, whom had just turned around to rejoin Yuuri, sprang his arm forward to Yuuri's shoulder to steady him.

"Y…Y…You… You… You mean… that… you… and I… I… I shared… with you…" Yuuri's eyes met with Conrad's, "with YOU… I… I shared a bed with you…"

Conrad merely kept a gentler poker-face as he let Yuuri stumble over his own thoughts as the wheels began to spin.

"I… with you… in bed… with me… I… Conrad… in bed with… me…" As it seemed to be taking a while, Conrad glanced around. "…in… me… Conrad… I… bed… with… slept with…"

"Your majesty," Conrad caught eyes with Yuuri as his head shot up.

"It's Yuuri--!"

Conrad cupped his chin and moved in for a kiss, Yuuri's tension melted away as he leaned into the kiss before the brunette pulled back. "Are you finished exercising, Yuuri?"

Yuuri blushed, though seemed to be done blabbering over himself, "Ah, yeah, I think so." His cheeks hurt, that was how red he was.

"Alright, then I suggest we return so you can have breakfast and clean up for the day." He smiled through closed eyes.

"Ah, with the guards then…?" Yuuri thought, as if finally recalling what had last happened when he was awake.

"The issues were resolved, and the prisoners were exported on outstanding warrants to foreign sovereignties after a great deal of negotiating for the best interests of Shin Madoku as you were in such a fatigued state." Conrad relayed the, 'slightly' biased, report.

"Ah… and Wolfram…?" His eyes glanced around, he knew that issue wasn't even close to resolved, after all, just this morning…

"What about me?" Wolfram commented, approaching Yuuri, he shot Conrad a dirty look that cast his older brother's eyes upward innocently. "How about YOU Sir Weller! What is wrong with you! All I requested was to make sure this cheat here didn't go gallivanting and here this wimp is, flirting with some female assassin, sleeping with you… I'm starting to think you're not as chivalrous as you let on for his majesty's royal knight!"

Yuuri blinked, Conrad gave him the look that now would be the time to keep the mouth in the SHUT position.

"And you! You think you're a playboy don't you! Just because you got me you think you're some hot stuff strutting around, is that in your character—well it obviously is you cheating little hussy." He grumbled as he began walking back to the dining hall, "I can't believe my fiancé is such a slut…"

Yuuri's eyes went wide, "W… What?"

Yuuri wasn't quite sure at that moment what exactly he was questioning, was it being called a slut, Wolfram being right about him being a 'cheat' well, if that engagement was ever considered valid—which it wasn't!—or the fact that Conrad had just punched Wolfram to the ground and looked like they were having a brawl-fest.

His mouth began to open in a bit more confusion, Wolfram and Conrad… were actually… fighting?! "What… What are you two doing!" Yuuri was in complete disbelief.

Sure, if it was Wolfram starting something, he could understand, but for CONRAD to have punched Wolfram… let alone first… in a fight, Conrad, in a fist-fight… Beyond the fact that it was quite beautiful how feral the man could be—he decided to file that thought away for later. Conrad was acting hot-headed like Wolfram or something!

Yuuri rubbed his forehead, brothers were brothers were brothers, he supposed. "Both of you! Stop it!"

He called from the sidelines, though frankly it had been a bit one-sided, Conrad seemed a bit more than annoyed. Conrad pulled his fist back and stopped.

"What was THAT about Conrad!" Wolfram said, he was about to make a retaliating blow when Yuuri stepped in.

"WALK IT OFF!" He said, Yuuri looked at Conrad shocked, "Yeah, what WAS that?" His heart was beating in his throat.

"Don't you dare ever call him a slut."

Yuuri's hand slid off Wolfram's one shoulder to cover his face and slide it down in his face. "Don't get in fights like that on my behalf!" He said to Conrad, peevishly. "Do you think I really want brothers fighting over me?!" He returned his hand over his mouth remembering just then Conrad's previous 'mouth in the shut position' look.

"Fighting OVER you?" Wolfram asked in disbelief.

"You know, I think I'LL walk that off." Yuuri stated, backing away before turning around to walk, waving his hand signaling the two NOT to follow, gods he hoped that would actually work.

Conrad looked a bit more surprised, but began to do his natural thing of rolling with something and looking really confident whilst doing that. Yuuri almost wanted to watch how he'd back-pedal that, but was pretty sure he also realllllly didn't want to see it.

"CONRAD!" Wolfram began screaming, Yuuri covered his face and began to run off wanting nothing more than to get away from the mess he had just created. He managed to finally reach somewhere the screaming didn't reach at the base of the west tower, he had dropped to his knee, facing the wall, trembling.

What had he done? He just destroyed Conrad and Wolfram's finally mended brotherhood… then, on top of that, just dumped it on them both to run, he was such a coward. He couldn't stop shaking stuck between angry at himself, afraid of what he had done, ashamed at himself, and afraid of what Conrad and yes even what Wolfram would think of him as a result of this all.

As if to continue his reign of misfortune, of all the people that had to find him, he had the pleasant surprise of a visit with Gwendel.

"Are you alright, your majesty?" Gwendel mentioned in a proper, stiff voice.

He internally thought that he was pretty much destined to just ruin all of Cheri's sons' morning, probably. He continued to face the wall, shaking, not quite ready to face it all yet.

Gwendel lowered himself to one knee. "Is this hide-and-seek? Greta is not back at the castle yet."

Yuuri shook his head, still facing the wall, staying silent was the best way, it had to be.

"Then are you cold? You are aware you are shaking. If you're still tired you should return to your bedchamber."

Yuuri finally turned to face Gwendel, "I just keep ruining things!" Black eyes were brimming with tears, which took Gwendel back a bit.

A part of Gwendel thought of how adorable wobbly-eyes were and fancied sewing a sad kitten next. "Ruining things?"

Yuuri shook his head, "For you and your brothers." He wiped his eyes, "Conrad and Wolfram just got into a fight and it's all my fault."

"They fight frequently, Wolfram is ill-tempered."

"…Conrad started it, a physical fight." Yuuri amended.

Gwendel looked surprised for a moment then added, "Wolfram is ill-tempered, and, if it was over you, I could see Conrad taking it to the next level. Though, it must be something if he escalated that far."

"About me? That makes no sense, I don't see why anyone would do that…" He shook his teary head, confused at Gwendel's intimation.

"Then fill me in, I do know my brothers well enough to determine the cause." He commented almost a little proud about that, almost.

"Wolfram was being his normal self calling me a wimp and a cheat, though he did use a new phrase in the litany."

"Being…?"

Yuuri looked at the ground a bit embarrassed, "He called me a slut." Yuuri did feel a bit put-off, but he could see it from Wolfram's point of view if he really thought Yuuri was with Conrad as Wolfram seemed to REALLY believe that their engagement was valid. It wasn't! Yuuri looked back at Gwendel expecting to see his shocked face as to how that could escalate into a fight.

Gwendel nodded, "I could see Conrad punching him for that."

Yuuri blinked daftly, "What? How? No… why?!"

Then, and only then did Gwendel give Yuuri an incredulous look, "If he hasn't told you why it's hardly my place, but I'll say this much, very few people are allowed to enter into Conrad's world."

"Huh?" Yuuri was feeling more and more confused, his eyes were watering up again, and Gwendel was getting a bit annoyed at his own complicated feelings towards reaching out to hug Yuuri when he looked like such an adorable little kitten, damn that soft-spot of his for cute things.

Gwendel wondered how to really proceed without being too much of an intruder to his brothers' business. He couldn't really use 'dignity of the king' or even much of the 'a really good friend' line as that wouldn't explain a fight so much as a sucker-punch. Damn that Conrad leaving him with only one option.

"How does Conrad feel toward you? Has he ever said anything?"

Gwendel sighed, "Imagine if he had heard Julia being called such a name, would it be as much of a surprise for him to react that way?"

Yuuri's head shot up, looking at Gwendel indignantly, "Of course not! But…" Yuuri suddenly appeared more hurt at the thought of merely being a continuation of that. His shoulders slumped, "…But then I said something stupid after they had stopped, and then Wolfram started screaming."

The older of the dark haired men commented, "And what exactly did you say?"

"…That I didn't want brothers fighting over me…"

"Then what?"

"Eh? That's what I said."

"…Where's the stupid part?" Gwendel asked.

"Because Wolfram took it to mean that Conrad was fighting for my honor as…"

"So WOLFRAM mistook something for implicating you for cheating on him?"

Yuuri looked at Gwendel, "When you say it like that… but it sounds so much more out of context than what it really felt like…"

"Did Conrad not correct his misunderstanding?"

He sighed, "That's the thing, there ISN'T a misunderstanding, I do love Conrad." Yuuri said, finally hanging his head in defeat, if he really thought about it, Gwendel never really DID seem to like him, anyway.

"So, my younger brother who loved your soul in not one but two incarnations is fighting with my even younger ill-tempered brother for calling you a derogatory name that you don't fit the description of? Is that it, your majesty?"

Yuuri nodded once, then looked back up at Gwendel surprised, "Wait… you know Conrad loves me?"

Gwendel bit back at his words as if he just realized he had said a little too much about what he knew. His eyebrow twitched, it was as if a look of fear parallel to Anissina's visits had crossed his face. "…Toes…"

"…? Toes? Conrad loves my toes?" He cocked his head to the side, very confused. He shook his head dismissing the thought. He thought back to what Gwendel had said beforehand, the actual weight behind it. "So, are you saying this was something inevitable?"

Gwendel nodded once before getting ready to excuse himself, maybe pack some bags… visit the countryside…

Yuuri touched his arm, "You mean, that because this was inevitable, my reaction- was it the wrong thing to run away?"

"Running away sounds about right." Gwendel snapped out of his reverie thinking of a way to pull that away from what he might have meant, "As for the two, they probably would have preferred to hash out their differences in private, versus in front of you, in particularly. I'm sure the two will approach you with their resolution."

"Wait, so if they're making decisions I SHOULD be there then…?"

"No. Definitely not, there are things you shouldn't and wouldn't want to hear that they will discuss. Your majesty, if you'll forgive me, I'll have to ask that you not say anything about this conversation between the both of us." Gwendel finally added.

Yuuri nodded once, "Gwendel, you're right. Thank you so much. I'll let them figure things out then play it from there, it's not like I can really just go back there now anyway, and I don't really know how Conrad chose to handle it… heh, what if he didn't even come clean--" He blanched, "What if he DIDN'T come clean—no, yes Gwendel. We'll pretend this conversation NEVER EVER happened, alright?"

"Right." Gwendel walked away letting out a nervous sigh and uncurling his toes thinking to himself, 'safe' as he went back toward the main castle.

As he approached he saw Wolfram and Conrad, Wolfram storming past moving toward the South, Conrad walking in a heated pace, though he seemed to be calming with each step.

"Gwendel!" Conrad caught his brother's attention, Gwendel was happy that his own grumpy face hid his own anxiety of being caught knowing too much.

"Ah, what did you need Sir Weller?"

Conrad gave him a weird look at the improper address. "Have you seen his majesty?"

Gwendel had a contemplative look, to lie or to tell the truth and risk the youth leaking too much, hm, decisions.

"Oh, I think I see him, excuse me, Gwendel."

"Ah, Conrad, don't forget breakfast will start soon." Gwendel commented, again thinking to himself, Safe!

Conrad waved as he quickly moved past him and approached the western grounds of Covenant Castle.

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	8. Part 8 Bleak Morning

Bleak Morning, part 8 by Vanessa S. Quest

A/N: Hey all, I just want to say a few things while I have the chance. First- to everyone R & Ring, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to comment back to you individually, but medical school really keeps you busy nervous laugh go fig, ne? Anyways… I also have to say as a forewarning, at the end of January I'm going to be on a mandatory hiatus from writing until at least February 10 due to some computer issues that can only get resolved upon that late date.

Now, as for my R & R's, there was one I just HAD to reply to, and as they cheated and left it anonymously on me, well, here I go:

In regards to why there are no Gwen/Yuu/Con fics, trying to OUT-write Wolf, then write in Con and then Gwen is really hard. I mean, really hard.

I'd like to go on a side-tangent with that and also mention that with my own preferences, where I could see how it's hinted at in the anime, to me Gwen comes off more cold-fish in that sort of combo pairing (now Gwen/Gunter, Gwen/Anissina, or even Gunter/Gwen/Anissina… I can see that passion… or fear, it's one of those.) Plus, I'm just too in love with ConYuu to really divide my attentions, personally.

/End Note.

Yuuri was a bit shocked when he saw Conrad approach him, smiling. Yuuri looked up at each corner of his vision wondering to himself if this was a good sign or not.

"Yuuri, there you are." Conrad bowed down then knelt beside the maoh.

"Uh, Conrad!" Yuuri smiled nervously, he really had no idea how to act in this situation. He thought to himself as to what Gwendel had not said as that conversation never happened. He bowed his own head, suddenly unable to find the strength to look Conrad in the eyes. "…I'm sorry, I'm sorry you two got in a fight because of me, and then I went it worse and THEN bailed on you both. I'm so, so incredibly sorry."

Conrad put his hand on Yuuri's shoulder lightly, "What are you talking about, Yuuri? If anything we should apologize to you. Wolfram acted completely inappropriately for a person in his rank and I acted out of violence, it must have scared you. I apologize for that."

Yuuri's head lifted to look at Conrad in complete disbelief. "…How do you come up with that sort of thing?" He just… didn't understand these people at all. It came to him simultaneously to seeing Conrad's face. That man just knew how to smooth things over, but didn't he see that Yuuri was the one who had to smooth things over- that HE was the one who messed up? He really didn't like the idea that Conrad was covering up his own mistakes that he made against Conrad himself, that would be so unfair!

Conrad seemed to notice how his attempt had faltered, sputtered, and ground to a halt in a course of seconds.

He looked down at Yuuri, connecting their eyes.

"…What was the outcome?" Yuuri asked, though he did feel as if he had no right to know, after running off like that. "…I'm pathetic, I don't even know how you played it off, did you convince him he was imagining it or did you tell him the truth…" Yuuri rubbed the forming traces of saline from his eyes. "I can't believe how weak I am to just dump such a thing on you both."

"…Yuuri…" Conrad pulled Yuuri into an embrace that was more of a platonic comfort than Yuuri thought he could take at the given circumstances.

He actually felt worse, somehow, when Conrad had done that. It was worse than twenty steps back, it felt like Conrad had somehow cut the strings that connected their hearts, and with that, Yuuri could already feel himself fraying.

Yuuri's shoulders slumped. "What did you tell him?" His eyes felt like those of the dead as he looked up at Conrad, they couldn't hold any warmth, that coldness was what his body was engulfed in, and behind that cold there were surges of pain, the only thing keeping his eyes from turning to ice, those tears that just kept insisting that they wanted to fall.

Conrad was having a hard time reading Yuuri, at the particular moment, the younger man was all over the place and in such a frequency…

"I told him I love you." Conrad raked his fingers through his hair, pulling the brown bangs from his face, he was acting mature, but a bit of provocation was there, as if he almost wanted to goad Yuuri.

Yuuri looked up at Conrad, it seemed his emotional rollercoaster just hit the breaks and hard. He was stabilizing on an emotion much closer to pleasant then it had just been.

Conrad dropped some of the haughtiness in his pose, though if anything it only bolstered that pride in his heart, he was glad that just by Yuuri hearing that he loved him that the black-haired youth would have such a reaction and come to his senses.

Yuuri looked and felt like someone just after wailing, euphoria wouldn't fit it, but the relief, the catharsis was there. His features were becoming more focused, younger, "Then what happened?"

"We fought of course." Conrad said as if that was a silly question.

"…" Yuuri wasn't quite sure if that was a joke or not, "…You do mean verbally, don't you?" He gave Conrad a look that read loud and clear- CLARIFY.

"Yes, verbally, afterwards, I apologized for striking him out of the blue, but he was being a brat…" Conrad let his close older-brother side show, after all, that kind of attitude and reaction only came from an older brother who really was fond of his little brother. The way his voice spiked playfully made Yuuri find yet another facet of Conrad that was charming, beautiful, and perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but it was good enough!

Conrad continued after a moment of letting that thought mull in the air, "After he admitted he was out of line for calling his fiancé a slut, he asked why it mattered to me so much and I told him why. Though, had I not, your comment would have blown over until later when he'd question why you walked off."

Conrad figured, he could even see the rage re-boil over and how the blond would pout and stomp his feet until he realized what Yuuri had said, oh, it would have been like clockwork down to the realization of the little word, 'over' and then, well there would have been an eruption.

Yuuri's back slammed against the stone wall, frustrated at himself. He was such an idiot, it really was all his fault. "Then…?"

"Then we fought again, a bit more discretely, though not by much." Conrad said, rubbing the brim of his nose, that basically meant he stopped screaming, Wolfram did not. That was a coin toss between being white-noise to the castle-staff or if the maids would actually listen in today of all days. Usually they would get bored after the first few minutes of Conrad you're not my brother you filthy human blah blah blah, especially as there would normally be no mentions of Yuuri.

"…" Yuuri was looking a bit more miserably again.

"Yuuri, you do realize that fighting with him isn't so horribly uncommon…"

"You're wrong! Conrad, Wolfram- him picking fights, him yelling, THAT is normal, YOU fighting back, that is very, VERY rare. I think I've seen you do it three times beside this." Yuuri stuck out his fingers as he mentally counted. "Yeah, three. And frankly, as twice of that was for military reasons, yes it's uncommon."

Conrad rolled his eyes as he thought to himself just how to convince Yuuri how that really wasn't the case, his tongue slid over his teeth then he looked back toward Yuuri, solution in mind, "That is when you are here and when he and I are both coming and going, believe me, we have a normal… a healthy brotherly relationship."

Yuuri gave him an eerie look as his eyes peered out from their upper corners, eyebrows low, it was actually a pretty strong glare.

"After I told him that I love you we both argued about the ramifications, for the record I didn't tell him if you reciprocate."

"…If?" Yuuri gave Conrad a bit of a peevish look, "You mean I get to start that fight all over again with me in the middle, and probably right after breakfast… if not during?"

Conrad nodded, "Pretty much. I'm sorry, but it isn't something I could really avoid without putting words in your mouth, and even then, he'd expect confirmation or denial. For the record, though, I did convince him to accept my feelings for you."

"Huh…? You mean as one-sided!" Yuuri looked annoyed, "And even if he accepts YOUR feelings for ME you know he's not going to accept MINE for YOU."

"Are you sure? As of yet he hasn't accepted that you didn't have feelings for him without a reason he could understand." Conrad again reminded him of how spoiled and bratty Wolfram really could be, "But if you give him a reason, he should be able to come to terms with that."

"But you're NOT the reason why I don't love him. Don't you think that will just make him resent you?" Yuuri almost felt like questioning Wolfram's immaturity going so far as to endanger Conrad's, but such a thought was so horrifying that he couldn't even bring himself to say it. "We should go to breakfast."

Yuuri just couldn't continue thinking such horrid thoughts, thoughts like that truly did terrify him. Conrad just not being there, he couldn't take that, not even again. Once was more than enough, thanks. As he thought that, he stood up and began to walk toward the breakfast hall.

"Alright." Conrad put his hand on Yuuri's shoulder as he escorted the young maoh to the dining hall.

Yuuri clutched his stomach with one arm, was he really getting that anxious over having to deal with Wolfram?

As if on cue, Wolfram barged toward him, Yuuri dropped his arm back to his side.

"Wolfram, I'm sorry for this morning…"

"What are your feelings for him!" He pointed at Conrad, Yuuri felt as if all of Wolfram's hostility was being shot at him with a laser.

Yuuri lowered his head then looked back at Wolfram, firmly. He should at least be strong so Wolfram didn't question his resolution. "I am in love with Conrad. I can not return your feelings towards me. You and I are not getting married. I am sorry for hurting you."

"Hurt? …Me? You think you could hurt ME!" Wolfram growled angrily, "A wimp like you couldn't hurt anyone, especially ME. The only way would be if I LET you! And you don't mean ENOUGH to me for you to do that!"

"Oh, Wolfy…" Cheri said sadly before returning her attention to the business at hand, sitting down for their meal.

Yuuri just kept looking forward, Wolfram continued to shoot his anger at him, he felt painfully numb inside after hearing such spiteful things, but really, he understood where that sort of feeling came from. "I hope this hasn't ruined anyone's breakfast." Yuuri said after a long pause, he moved to sit down, his sides were hurting, it was like his center of gravity was trying to pull him in.

"I wouldn't care if you dropped dead." Wolfram said infuriated.

No one bothered to correct the fuming blond, merely to look down at the meal to begin eating, in silence.

As onyx eyes spotted the sweet meal laying in front of him, something kept nagging at him, his sides hurting far too much to be normal. His fork clinked against the plate before clattering onto it, dropped and disregarded. He slumped slightly forward then slid off his chair to the right and onto the ground, his body stiff.

"Yuuri…" Wolfram glanced at him, concerned, as if he decided it was a bad joke he turned his nose up, "You're not funny at all."

"Yuuri!" Conrad rushed over to him.

Gunter, Gwendel, and Cheri were quickly out of their seats, standing in shock. Cheri cupped her hands, her fingers before her lips, "Oh my, your majesty!"

"…Yuuri…" Conrad shook his shoulder slightly, "Yuuri?" Conrad's eyes winced closed, tears in the corner before snapping open working strictly on soldier-mode.

He laid Yuuri face up, back stretched, though it had taken a bit of effort. He unbuttoned Yuuri's shirt, he had been pawing at his own stomach, maybe something had injured him and he hadn't known… something not fully healed… Conrad's eyes shot wide at the sight of Yuuri's bare chest.

He stood up and turned around, clutching the hilt of his sword.

"Sir Weller! Where are you going?!" Gunter asked in complete disbelief.

"…Toes." He said bitterly.

Gwendel and Wolfram winced before reaching that side of the table to see what had so inspired the royal guard so.

Gwendel looked at Gunter, who in turn after spotting the marks nodded and turned to leave, himself.

Wolfram grabbed Yuuri's hand. "I told you! You're not funny! Wake up, this is a bad, bad joke!"

He shook his head to inform the hand that just planted itself on his shoulder that he wasn't about to let go of that hand. Gwendel squeezed once, Wolfram then relented quite annoyed. Gwendel lifted Yuuri's unconscious form and carried the youth back toward the king's chamber.

His abdomen was laced with intricate spells set around pentacles and magical markers but the spell itself, though the exacts may have a bit left to decipher, was perfectly clear. Contingency plan.

The markings were charred as if it was burning its way through the maoh's body. Spells like that didn't just come into being, no, things like that required a long ritual, seeding-time, and skill. Also, they required the casting sorcerer to keep it going.

That left Conrad with two options, one, convince the gentleman in the holding cell he no longer wants to have the spell cast, or two which, Conrad must admit was his preferred option, to kill him. Horrifically, painfully kill him dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Would that be considered overkill? Conrad presumed he could kill the scum five times over before he could hit the floor.

While Yuuri had been kept well in the dark to Conrad's delight, Yozak was currently guarding four assassins before their execution which was scheduled to take place within a few hours. However, as spells like that took more time to cultivate then what the sorceress had for it to go to completion …

He put together a mental time-line, out of the set of assassins, only one had the magical ability, opportunity, and right time-frame for that spell to be in that far of a stage. Oh, wouldn't he be lucky.

Conrad's eyes darkened, no, he'd never show Yuuri such a face if he could avoid it, it had once partly slipped through. One of the very few times the two had ever had a fight of any sort, Yuuri had wanted to heal a person who had just attacked him, Conrad had been tempted to just take out his sword and finish him off then and there, but was contented in just keeping Yuuri far enough away. Oh he had been tempted.

As it were, he didn't have to keep Yuuri at arm's reach at the exact moment.

Gunter was winding through the library scanning through the books of spells, historic mystical symbols, archaic magic, and a few books on a particular order that must be 'new'.

Upon referencing the crest for the Venomous Mages he already recognized three of the fifteen symbols lining Yuuri's chest and stomach. He had recognized two amplifiers and suppressors in there, meaning he would only have to find the other eight symbols. The general idea would be four elements knowing this sect, a time displacement, sleep, mechanism of death and symbol of death. Really, it was crude. And lo, as he searched the reference materials, there they were just as suspected.

Gunter scowled when he came upon mechanism of death. That was rather cruel on their behalf, really now, though their name did suggest that was their fancy.

They were channeling in the pains of grey squirrel venom, or at least that would be the case if Gunter didn't counter it. He looked at the position of the sun. It had been seven days since Yuuri had been bitten and marked, with the time displacement spell of that caliber it would probably require at least three more days to surpass the maoh's own powers regardless of the suppressors and amplifiers.

He took out a parchment and quill before sending for Gisela.

Conrad stood before the slightly-worse-for-the-wear sorcerer assassin.

"Oh, I see you're back. Has it been a week already?" He smirked, though he still seemed nauseous.

"Let me guess, you're using your life energy to enhance it, am I right?" Conrad mentioned he smiled warmly.

"True, but here's something you probably didn't know, he's going to wake up in another few hours. Do you want to know how that spell's going to kill him? I'll tell you."

"Sure, why not." Conrad said, humming to himself the stabby-knife song. (Stabbity-stab-stab-stabby-stab goes the knife. What a great drinking song soldiers make up.)

"He'll get to go through a tediously slow rendition of grey squirrel poison. Except anti-venom's not going to work, neither will bringing him into the shade. I can't wait 'til he gets to stage two. He'll probably just try to do himself in."

Conrad held the knife making the blade roll over each finger as if it were a baton.

"I should also add, for the record, that spell has a time-displacer which means even after you kill me, that baby's going to keep running for another day and a HALF." He smirked. "Well beyond enough time for him to enter stage TWO." He held up his two left fingers that Conrad had so lovingly peeled the nails off.

"Is that why you seem in such a good mood?" Conrad asked.

"Well, you see, the thing is, if I take the spell off, all of it goes poof away, no wait or lag."

"Oh, I see, so you'd like to beg."

"Bargain."

"For how long, until you think the spell needs to get to a critical point?" Conrad rhetorically countered. "You know, if the spell is simply disenchanted, it also will just _poof_ away."

"You didn't even know about our group, so why don't you explain how you'll figure that out." He kept that smug look on his face just long enough for Conrad to decide that maybe, just maybe, he was mean spirited.

"Ever hear of lying? Your clan was formed 300 years ago, though it also fell into poverty and only reemerged 160 years ago with any promise, gained a little popularity 60 years ago, and went dormant during the war because your big players were too busy selling their own services versus the group's."

The man sat up, blinking, a bit shocked.

"You know what, I may just keep you alive a little longer. That way, once Gunter counters those little squiggles you seem to think of as powerful magic, I can take my time with you. I've been told by many that my company is wonderful. I'll spend days with you, oh you'll recall each minute of that time too." He peeled off the rest of the sorcerer's nails with little effort.

Smiling, he waited until the screams quieted, then he took out the salt. Shortly after dressing the other's wounds with such a lovely antibacterial agent, he left the cell with promises of 'later'.

"Guard, on the half-hour marks you're to salt those again. All of them." His eyes were dark. "And, I'd make sure to be prompt if I were you."

The guard shivered; somehow Conrad's impersonation of Gisela had been stunning, as he had gotten the same reaction. "Sir, yes sir!"

Conrad waltzed toward Gunter's office to see the progress.

--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest


	9. Part 9 Decisive Actions

Decisive Actions, part 9 by Vanessa S. Quest

"Ah, Conrad, I'm glad you're here. Gisela is fetching the materials for the counter-ritual."

Conrad nodded once then looked at the white-haired man, "The prisoner informed me that Yuuri will awaken, upon awakening the first effects of the poison-spell will present."

"That is what I've feared. If you've finished interrogating the prisoner…"

"Excuse me Gunter, I am going to check on his majesty."

Gunter gave him a look, "Check on? Don't you think you should stay a bit longer than that? If I were able to… I would be spending as much time as possible trying to make his majesty comfortable… Oh, his majesty…"

Conrad decided to back out of the room as he saw the hearts light up in Gunter's eyes. "Then I'll leave you to your noble work." Conrad said, he bowed then proceeded to hurry to Yuuri's room.

Upon entering, Conrad's eyes fell onto Yuuri's form. He seemed to be sprawled across the bed with both of his arms extended outward, though with the proximity of his legs to each other it was apparent that this was more as to how his body landed then any real motion on his behalf. His chest was still exposed, to Conrad's surprise, Yuuri's eyes were fixed on the ceiling, fluttering open then closed in a traceable pattern.

Open, three rapid flutters closed, open, three rapid flutters closed, open… his eyes mirrored obsidian, a glassy sheen on top and flat, lifeless bottom. Yuuri's breathing was so faint as it slipped past his lips that Conrad had to strain to hear it. He contemplated the validity of possibly tying down Yuuri's arms now, thinking of what was just about to come.

He opted to grab a set of towels to fix around Yuuri's forearms and snow-gloves on Yuuri's hands to a baffled Wolfram's surprise.

"Conrad, what are you doing?"

"It's almost noon, isn't it?"

"…Yes, but I don't see how that explains what you're…"

"When he wakes up he'll need that to protect him from himself."

"…When he wakes up? Conrad, you do understand what's happening, don't you?" Wolfram was looking at Conrad as if he'd finally snapped.

"See that symbol on his chest?"

"That one?" Wolfram pointed to the symbol that looked like the silhouette of a sand bear's muzzle.

"Yes. That is a sleep symbol, a temporary one." His finger glided across Yuuri's chest to below his left nipple, "And this one…"

"It looks really ominous."

"That's how they plan to make the spell kill him. It siphons the pain felt from a squirrel bite."

Wolfram's eyes widened, "He has to go through that AGAIN?!"

"…And this symbol here, of the omen-bird claw, is for time displacement." Conrad gently brushed Yuuri's cheek with his hand, "That means that when he wakes up he'll experience that pain until the spell runs out of time."

"…What?"

"He'll be stuck in that sort of pain until the spell is countered or until he dies, whichever comes first." Conrad's face was deathly serious.

Wolfram's face turned to one of empathy and seriousness as he grasped the situation. He looked at the bed, "I really didn't mean what I said, I didn't, Conrad I didn't mean it!" As if he was searching for any sign of forgiveness, he pleaded for mercy from Conrad.

Conrad tightened the belt he used to fix the towel grips. Looking at the bed itself thinking for how to prop Yuuri to it versus him managing to get up… "Wolfram, I know. You're hotheaded, you're not so cold as to wish something like THIS onto anyone, and I'm sure Yuuri knows that, too. Get me a second set of sheets."

Wolfram nodded as he moved to get the linens.

Bringing up a set of black sheets, he handed them off. Conrad slid one set over and the other under Yuuri's body before he began to twist the sides into one strand on each side. He then looped them through the underside of the bed's metal framework and tied it off. As for Yuuri's legs, he tangled them with the top-sheet and attached it to the footboard before glancing at the time again.

"Go, check on Gunter's status."

"…I can't just leave Yuuri like this…"

"You don't really have the physical strength to restrain him if it comes to it, and it will be a very disturbing sight. I'd really prefer to spare you from it."

Wolfram looked down at his feet knowing that Conrad was, of course, right. He was so good at that.

Conrad sat on the bed immediately beside Yuuri's chest, if it was like before, Yuuri will be too far gone in the pain to really reason with too much, so he'd pretty much have to pin his arms if it came to that and try to keep him from thrashing around horribly much.

Yuuri's eyes began to flutter at an asynchronous rate, breeching its well-formed pattern, he was dreaming. It felt real, though, the blood was dripping down the sword, a sickeningly sticky red mingling with rain-water, and yet all he could see was Morgif with blood all over the blade.

He tried to find the origin of the blood, and as his eyes cast across the room, he finally came across the score of bodies. When he saw the hand outstretched underneath the pile holding Julia's blue pendant, red cuffs of a tan uniform shirt…

Yuuri's eyes shot wide open as the pain hit him, and hard. He began to scream and he couldn't make the ringing in his ears go away.

His head scrolled left and right as his eyes tried to focus, tried to disprove that sight.

He felt something beside the writhing pain of what felt like insects crawling beneath his skin, biting, pushing down on it, all of his nerves felt that, except he felt something else… Something holding him down, his eyes turned left and right at a faster speed then his whipping head, he finally caught a glimpse of tan attached to two arms and one very concerned looking Conrad.

He began to gasp in huffs of air as he watched Conrad leaning over him, his brown eyes looked concerned, his mouth opening and closing, trying to say something, the pain constantly pulling him back before he could decipher what those lips were stay, he shook his head, trying to hear it, to get it before being pulled under in a sea of pain again.

He winced his eyes closed as another set of screams were ripped from his body.

Yuuri's back arched as he tried to pull his arms toward his chest, gods he had to itch it, scratch at them, do something to get them out from under his skin.

He felt a steady pressure unlike the other pain.

Yuuri's eyes cracked open, tears welling at the sides, he tried to focus upward, as if rediscovering Conrad, he let his eyes open fully trying to read Conrad's brown eyes and slightly unhinged, tinted lips.

He actually managed to concentrate enough on those lips, the parts closest to Conrad's mouth had a soft tint of a merlot, purplish red, the outsides were a beautiful, natural fleshy pink-tan. They were saying something…

"Yuuri, I know it hurts, but please, try to stop thrashing around."

His muscles constricted under him, as if convulsing to try to itch themselves, he tried to not raise his arms, after all Conrad would know what to do…

His mind was getting fuzzy around the edges. Why did he hurt like this?!

"That's it Yuuri! Gunter will be here soon to help."

"GYAH!" Yuuri's back arched again as he shook violently, and that concentration, that glimpse of the surface, it was all gone, he was pulled under the wave of pain.

He tried to pull his arms up to each other, tried to pull his legs closer. His bent knees only giving him so much pull. His stomach felt clenched tight until something far worse than he could ever recall started to happen, he felt his insides start pulsating with that jabbing pain, his stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, heart…

He tried to suck in air but that was so hard! He sputtered in air, his torso shook as it arched, trying to bring in air. His eyes were rolling back, but he was still awake, oh he felt it. Something told him conscious or not he'd not escape this pain, at least awake there were crests of seeing Conrad.

There was someone to reach for, someone who could pull him out if he could just get close enough…

"YUURI!" Conrad screamed into Yuuri's ear.

His eyes gave up on trying to roll over on him, they weakly fell to their left corners where he spied Conrad from his heavily lidded view. His lips were quivering, not like he could really control that.

"C… Con…rad…" He pulled in a sharp breath, it hurt but not breathing he assumed would hurt more, after all, his chest felt hot each time he failed to push out his used air and replace it with the fresh kind.

He found a shallow range that allowed him to breathe slightly less constricted.

His legs and arms continued to twitch, his body ached and throbbed, gods the pain…

Suddenly, it struck him. A wave of numb, his body went limp. His neck dropped to the side, his head rolled toward the left where he was able to spot Conrad, he smiled faintly which took so much energy that he really just didn't seem to have.

Gunter fanned more smoke over Yuuri, he felt something soft, gentle land on his chest, then felt a burning sensation all over.

"Gyah!" His neck arched back, his larynx made a straight line between his open, gasping mouth and his hungry, starving, deprived, needy little lungs.

It felt like it burnt up and out of his body, and he could have sworn he was hallucinating, but he could see little black worm-leech globs come through his skin and burst from moist squirming whatevers into dust and blow away. When he saw those worm-like things disappear the pain suddenly vanished from the area completely.

He gasped in breaths as he felt his hands through his arms stop feeling pain, then his legs, as it moved to his chest, it ripped out more screams. He had to be hallucinating or these wormies had a final boss because whatever was trying to pull from his stomach and chest was huge, a black mercury-like glob acting like a lava-lamp, as it was almost completely out of his body it was the size of a bowling ball or something.

"AHH, ahh, ah…" He panted in air as the pressure on his lungs released, then his stomach, the only thing left was his liver and heart.

As it came off his heart he felt faint, it was so great feeling something other than pain, well, actually he felt pretty close to numb. He saw the last few strains slipping out then suddenly, that was it, nothing else was coming out of his chest, but he still saw 15 little strings around his chest and that ominous bowling-ball above his chest. He figured it would hurt if that dropped onto his solar plexis.

The room was getting pretty smoky, and he was getting really tired, he turned to see if Conrad was still there…

He saw those black worms crawling an invisible wall between him and the air, like a picture frame separating the image from gunk, the more time that past the more of those glob-worms were disappearing until he could clearly see Conrad's face.

Smiling weakly, his view returned to his own chest.

Gunter was holding something over his stomach, a white, glowing crystal. The crystal looked like it was getting mucked up with grey, then as his chest finally felt free the crystal turned red.

The white-haired bishounen snapped the crystal back and into a wooden box to be taken from the room immediately, Gisela took it and exited the room, that was the last thing Yuuri's eyes could focus on before he fainted.

"Yuuri?" Conrad squeezed Yuuri's hand as he saw him go under. "…Yuuri!"

He felt something steamy, something warm on his face, it felt wonderful. He opened his eyes to see Conrad wiping his arms down with a heated cloth.

"Cah…ad…" Yuuri's own voice had cut out, making the name in his mind fall short before leaving his tongue.

"Yuuri, good morning." Conrad said in a soothing tone, though he seemed to be in a sort of zen-like calmness. He continued to move the cloth along Yuuri's hand, pulling it over and in between his fingers.

He closed his eyes to take in the pleasant feeling of warmth on his hands, the warmth fading from his arms to be replaced with a nice, tingly cool like after using mouthwash, that refreshed sort of feeling. "M'rnin."

His own mind was in a haze, was this a dream, was that other dream a dream, or was that real or a real dream? His brain was really hazy as he realized all of that was just a jumbled use of the word dream four times. He put his hand over his face to rub it.

"What day is it?"

"You've been unconscious for a day."

"…Huh? Why would I be that tired?"

Conrad stopped what he was doing to look at him strangely.

"…You mean that wasn't a nightmare?" He groaned, "I didn't get bitten again did I?"

"It was the result of an assassination attempt. It seems that when they had made their first attempt, he wound up using a poisoning spell on you."

Yuuri gave him a dirty look, "Was that the last time or do I have to go that again?"

"Gunter countered it, that was the last time."

"Good. 'Cause that was horrible!" Yuuri pouted before leaning himself into Conrad's shoulder, throwing the other man a bit of a surprise.

He put the warm cloth down and put his thumb under Yuuri's chin, tilting his face upward to kiss him. Yuuri closed his eyes after a few moments, that felt so good. It was refreshing, rejuvenating.

Conrad pulled back, "I love you Conrad." Yuuri mentioned.

"Of course, your majesty." Conrad winked playfully as Yuuri gave him an incredulous look.

"You know just because you're perfect doesn't mean you get to get away with not telling me--"

"I love you Yuuri." His hand ran down Yuuri's cheek before he locked eyes. "Would you like to go on a picnic?"

"You mean like a date?" Yuuri smiled, a bit smug himself.

"No." Conrad said, it was so easy to goad Yuuri, though he supposed he should treat Yuuri with kid gloves, well at least baby him a bit more after this. "It IS a date."

"You seem in a good mood. Are you having a good day, or something?" Yuuri noted, of course, he couldn't mind that as it was of course positively contagious.

"Any time I get to spend with you is a good day." He beamed.

Yuuri grabbed Conrad's arm and pulled him down, landing the older man on top of him, embracing him. He bent his elbows framing Yuuri's face with his forearms. He kissed him in succession of five rounds before sitting back up.

"Propriety says we end it there for now."

"Boo."

"You're not well yet, besides, after that comes another phase of the relationship, lets have fun with this phase first, before we move ahead."

Yuuri smiled, "Don't make me wait so long next time." He blinked at himself, a little confused. Was that his own feelings or was Julia…? He looked at Conrad who was giving him a bit of a baffled look himself.

"Ha… ha… ah… uh, so where should we go on a picnic? Off the grounds, right?" He smiled suggestively, after all, when he smiled like that Conrad almost always gave in to his will.

"We could go to one of the villages, take a tour of Shin Madoku, then after sight-seeing, play some baseball, eat under the shade of a tree…"

Yuuri smiled, "That sounds just like you."

"…Sentimental?"

Yuuri blushed wondering if someone had said something, "Ah, no… I was going to say perfect."

--The End-- by Vanessa S. Quest


End file.
